Clare swatted at the men. ‘Stop bullying the poor girl. If she doesn’t want to do it, she doesn’t have to.’

They mumbled their apologies and stared at me, waiting for me to respond.

‘Thank you.’ I smiled weakly and took a deep breath but before I had a chance to reply Pippa grabbed my arm.

‘Are you all forgetting something? The event for the library is next Friday!’ Her eyes were as big as tennis balls. ‘Lottie is supposed to be the host. We can’t let them down; it’s a sell-out.’

‘Oh, bloody hell!’ Clare clamped a hand over her mouth.

‘Of course we won’t let them down,’ said Roger calmly. ‘We can just use Lottie’s notes. There are enough of us to manage it between us. Not me, though, unfortunately; I’m taking the Year Sevens on a school trip for three days next week.’

‘And I’m dyslexic,’ said Matt, holding his hands up. ‘I can’t make head nor tail of the tasting notes even though I helped make the wine; I’d get all those statistics wrapped round my neck.’

‘I’m not around either,’ said Clare, doing a little shimmy. ‘Ben’s flying home for R&R on Thursday and Ian and I are picking him up from the base. I can’t wait.’

‘That’s great news,’ said Godfrey and I together.

‘No. It. Is. Not!’ said Pippa querulously, her pale face going pink. ‘It is not great at all. I’ve never organized an event before, I’ve put in a lot of effort, everyone’s looking forward to it and now it’s doomed to fail.’

We all stared at her. I’d never heard her raise her voice before and neither had the others judging by their shocked expressions.

Godfrey raised a hand timidly. ‘I’ll be here to help, although I’d rather stick to pouring the wine and handling sales than doing any talking.’

‘Great,’ Pippa muttered ungraciously. She took a deep breath and pressed her hands to her face. ‘Sorry I lost my temper. It’s just that everyone at the library knows how much the vineyard means to me; I want them to see it in the best possible light.’

‘You could do the presentation yourself, you know,’ I said softly. ‘No one knows this place better than you.’

‘It’s true, honey,’ said Clare, fiddling with her armful of bangles. ‘I bet if we took you into the middle of the vineyard blindfolded, you’d know exactly where you were.’

Pippa folded her arms and frowned. ‘Well, I probably would, but speaking about it is a completely different ball game.’

‘You know the wines pretty well and I can coach you on the new ones,’ Matt offered. ‘I was going to have a final run-through with Lottie before the radio interview; we can bring it forward a week and you can join us.’