She was too polite to say, ‘You’re not my family,’ so instead she murmured, ‘Hello, Leo,’ and smiled faintly. ‘I didn’t know you were coming.’ Helena wouldn’t be pleased to see him, even if he was trying to be supportive.

‘Cressida suggested I came, said how pleased you’d be if I did. Are you pleased, Gilly?’

‘Of course,’ she said, ‘if you buy one of Helena’s scarves.’ She really hoped that he would buy one and not think she’d be pleased for any other reason. She wished she’d heard definitely if William was coming or not. But with Leo here, she’d rather he didn’t. Her life suddenly seemed rather complicated.

At last they were at Helena’s stall. When Cressida and Martin had said hello, Gilly kissed her daughter and handed over the box and the cool bag.

‘Oh, thank you, Mum! My new friends are addicted to your baking. The savouries went down so well this morning.’

‘Well, now it’s a bit later in the day you can have a glass of Prosecco to go with the snacks,’ said Gilly.

‘Hello, Helena,’ said Leo warmly. ‘I thought I’d come and give you some support. Not that it looks like you need it.’

Helena’s smile was a little tight. ‘It has been really busy.’

‘You don’t seem to have a lot of stock,’ went on Leo. ‘I gather it was all rather short notice so maybe you didn’t have time to make enough?’

‘I did have loads of stock,’ said Helena, ‘but I’ve sold a lot of it. I’ve had to ask if some people can leave their purchases until the end of the day so other people can see examples of my work.’

‘Goodness me! I was going to buy something for your mother but I may be too late.’

‘It’s OK,’ said Helena, obviously making an effort, ‘I give her anything she takes a fancy to. Now will you excuse me? There’s a gentleman …’

Gilly took a step back and watched Helena do her thing with a man who seemed very interested. She gave him a business card and he gave her one back. It would be good if that meant he’d commissioned a scarf. Leo wasn’t going to order one, she realised.

Gilly stepped forward when Helena was free to talk again. ‘Would you like me to take over for a bit? Give you a chance to look around?’

‘I had a look around this morning, but a loo break would be good.’