Her words of praise were incredibly well timed and when we parted in the yard there was a spring in my step as I unlocked my cottage door, thinking that maybe I wasn’t such a failure after all.

I sent Sidney a message asking if he was free for a chat and seconds later we were facing each other on Skype via our screens. He looked relaxed and tanned in a short-sleeved shirt. I, on the other hand, having just come in from a windy Derbyshire hillside, looked like I’d spent the night in a hedge.

‘Harvest has already started here,’ he said, uncorking a plain bottle and pouring some pale juice into a glass. ‘Our Chardonnay Cuvée. Cheers!’ His bright eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled and held his glass up to the screen. ‘Delicious. How is your crop doing?’

He listened carefully, stroking his moustache as I mentioned the readings the team had taken from various rows and told him of our plan to start picking on Monday.

‘You’re doing great, Lottie, but ideally you need another warm dry week,’ he said, leaning back in his chair. ‘Is that likely?’

I glanced through the window of my cottage. There was a blanket of unbroken cloud overhead. When the wind dropped it wasn’t too cold, and there’d been little or no rain for a few days so the ground was dry.

‘Checking out the long-range forecast is my next job,’ I said, rubbing a hand over my tummy distractedly. I didn’t know if it was coincidence or not but the baby had been very active since Harvey’s visit and it had crossed my mind several times that maybe I’d managed to transmit my anxiety and the baby was unsettled too. ‘What would Ted do, do you reckon?’

‘Ted was a risk taker,’ said Sidney. ‘He’d leave harvesting until the last possible moment. What is your gut saying?’

‘I don’t know.’ I nibbled my lip. ‘I don’t feel experienced enough to take risks. On the other hand, if we’re going to give a still wine a shot, the riper the better.’

‘If you can wait until next Friday, I should be able to get a flight over and help you out.’

I could have wept with relief. ‘That would be amazing! But please, let your family know this time.’

Our laughter was interrupted by an urgent rapping at the door immediately followed by Matt bursting in, out of breath.

‘Sorry to barge in, boss.’ He raised a hand in greeting to Sidney on my laptop. ‘There’s just been an urgent weather warning on the radio. Storm Sandra is on its way across from Siberia.’

Panic gripped my lungs like a vice. ‘How bad?’

‘Gale force winds, torrential rain, the lot,’ he said gravely. ‘According to the weather man, it should hit Derbyshire late on Monday.’