She decided to make sausage rolls for the picnic but didn’t go as far as making her own puff pastry. She mixed caramelised onions into the sausage meat though, which was a lovely addition. Then she made smoked salmon Scotch eggs before focusing on some little fruit tarts using her own frozen raspberries. While she baked she didn’t let herself think about selling her house, she just focused on providing the perfect picnic for two. Helena would have said she was providing for twenty-two, but baking kept anxiety away and she was good at it.

Leo collected her the next evening in a limousine. He looked extremely handsome in a dinner jacket and Gilly was very glad she was wearing a rather expensive full-length coat to go over her favourite dress. She felt dressed up but not overdressed, and, most importantly, a pashmina meant she wouldn’t be cold.

‘You look sensational!’ he said when he’d taken the picnic hamper from her and kissed her cheek.

‘You look pretty smart yourself,’ she said, trying not to hyperventilate. She hadn’t felt like this about a man since she’d first met her ex-husband, Sebastian. It was lucky she was no longer in her twenties and was now very sensible, she thought.

‘It’s so kind of you to come.’ He sat down in the back seat next to her.

‘The pleasure is all mine, really,’ said Gilly. ‘I had fun making the picnic.’

‘If I’d done it, it would have been sandwiches from M&S followed by one of those tubs of brownies or fudge bites or whatever they are.’

‘Which I happen to love!’ said Gilly.

‘Next time,’ he said. ‘But I’m looking forward to what you’ve brought with you.’

‘We are going for the cultural experience!’ said Gilly, laughing. She realised she was completely giddy with excitement and what could quite possibly be lust. Whatever it was, it was lovely and she was going to enjoy every second.

‘I can’t believe that apart from everything else, you are a sensational cook,’ said Leo a few hours later, on his second smoked salmon Scotch egg.

He had found a delightful place for them to eat in the garden room of the main house, with views over the lake and the woodlands beyond. ‘I’m not sensational,’ Gilly replied, trying not to giggle, having had two glasses of champagne. ‘I just have a knack with pastry.’

‘I’m not eating pastry,’ said Leo, ‘so you must be sensational.’

Gilly looked at him over her glass, trying to think of something sensible to say. ‘It’s time for the second half of the performance,’ she said eventually.

‘Really? Do we have to go? Couldn’t we just stay here and eat this delicious food and get drunk? After all, neither of us has to drive, and how often can one say that?’