‘He’s tough. Pop over and borrow a cup of sugar or something, although maybe make it quinoa as we know he doesn’t take sugar.’ Her friend looked doubtful. ‘Or take him some of Mum’s shortbread. Everyone loves that.’

Now Amy frowned at Helena with her head on one side. ‘You know, I’m beginning to get why you don’t go in for dating. You have no idea about normal behaviour.’

Helena shrugged, feeling vindicated but hiding it.

‘But tomorrow,’ Amy went on. ‘I’m going over as soon as I decently can. So, how’s your mum?’

Everyone loved Gilly because she was always baking and had been fairly relaxed when they were growing up. ‘She’s OK, I think,’ said Helena. ‘We’ve had a summons to Sunday lunch with stick-woman and my brother.’

‘You’re very unkind about Cressida,’ said Amy, who’d met her. ‘She’s perfectly nice.’

‘I know there’s nothing major wrong with her but I’d like her better if she wasn’t quite so obsessed with running and healthy eating. She’s aggressively skinny’ – Helena held up her hand – ‘which is fine! But she wants everyone else to be too.’

‘I don’t think you can be aggressively skinny.’

Helena raised her eyebrows. ‘Spend a little time with her and you’ll know that isn’t true.’

‘But Gilly gets on OK with her?’

‘You know Mum, she gets on with everyone even though Mum is definitely a feeder and Cressida thinks everyone should live on green-sludge smoothies.’

‘I stayed in a B & B when I was away,’ said Amy. ‘It was so not up to Gilly’s standards!’

Helena laughed. ‘She is obsessed. She has Four in a Bed on series record and is always looking for obscure places to dust. I keep telling her she should go on that programme.’

‘She takes such pride in Fairacres, doesn’t she? And when you stay with someone who doesn’t, you do notice.’ Amy had been an early guinea pig for Gilly when she was testing her bedrooms for comfort.

‘She’s lucky she loves baking,’ said Helena, ‘so the home-made biscuits she puts in every room are a pleasure for her to make.’

‘And the top-quality bed linen makes such a difference!’ said Amy. ‘So luxurious.’

Helena grew serious for a moment. ‘She had all that before she opened. She told me it was how she comforted herself when Dad was being so horrible. She bought bed linen.’

‘That was a truly awful time for you all,’ said Amy.

‘But you and your mum were so supportive.’

Amy smiled. ‘I remember my mother panicking after she’d invited you over to stay. Gilly’s such a brilliant cook and she thought Gilly would hate everything my mum cooked.’

‘She wouldn’t have cared!’ said Helena. ‘And your parents have a very deft hand with the corkscrew and that really helped.’