‘Apparently, Roger means “famous warrior”,’ said Roger with a smirk, looking up from his phone. ‘So I think that trumps Clare.’

‘Have you been researching the meaning of your own name, Roger?’ Godfrey folded his arms smugly. ‘I thought we were supposed to be concentrating.’

‘Not exactly, I …’ He went bright red and his mouth flapped open and closed like a marooned goldfish. ‘Well, all right, I did.’

We all laughed but the effect of Godfrey’s admonishment was diminished somewhat by his own mobile pinging with an incoming email. His eyes lit up when he saw who the sender was.

‘Ah. Email from the lovely Olivia; shall I read it out?’

We agreed that he should and I took a seat, halting my presentation for the time being. Godfrey skimmed quickly through the first half of the email. Olivia thanked us again for agreeing to take part, confirmed the name of the other participants, Thomas Devine – a chef who was semi-famous, very pompous and liked the sound of his own voice – and the TV and radio presenter Fiona Love, a bubbly lady in her fifties whom everybody in the country adored.

‘Phwoar. Can you get me Thomas’s autograph?’ said Clare, pretending to fan her face. ‘He’s got that sexy bad boy thing going on. Gorgeous.’

‘Fiona’s not bad either,’ said Matt with a wolfish grin. ‘She’s got that sexy cougar thing going on.’

‘Ahem,’ Roger put in. ‘Concentrate please, the pair of you.’

They giggled like teenagers and Godfrey cleared his throat.

‘Olivia goes on as follows: the only fly in the ointment,’ he read aloud, ‘is that Thomas Devine can’t make the original date and so we’ve had to bring our interview forward to next Friday. I hope this doesn’t cause you too much inconvenience, but I’ve already accepted the alteration on your behalf.’ He looked up. ‘That’ll be all right, won’t it?’

My first thought was that it would give me an excuse to see Jensen earlier than planned; thank goodness he’d be back from his travels by then. My second was that now I had even less time to swot up.

‘One week from today?’ Pippa squeaked. ‘Oh no!’

My mouth had gone dry and I knocked back the sparkling elderflower. ‘I’ll never be ready! It’s a tall enough order as it is, sending me – the newbie – into a live radio interview.’

Matt topped up my glass. ‘Don’t be daft, Lottie, you’re a natural. And don’t forget what Sidney said: that he’d found a new apprentice. You’ll smash it.’

‘Hear, hear,’ said Roger, ‘as long as you do your homework, you’ll be fine.’

‘And Olivia will be at your side,’ Godfrey added. It was fair to say that he had a colossal crush on her. ‘And she is extremely knowledgeable about wine.’