My little joke raised a laugh as I’d hoped it would. I needed them to enjoy themselves because that way they might not notice how back-breaking picking grapes was.

‘Today we’ll be harvesting Pinot Noir, which is one of our red varieties. If you’d all like to turn around, Roger will demonstrate how we’d like the bunches to be picked.’

The group did as they were told, and while Roger ran through the instructions about where to snip, and which grapes to leave on the vine, Clare and I handed out secateurs and gardening gloves.

My team had risen to the challenge as usual and had been hard at it preparing the groundwork since eight this morning. Pippa had a morning shift at the library but would be heading down here with Ben as soon as she’d checked on her dog and changed into her grape-picking clothes. Between us, we’d assembled twenty pickers, including Olivia Channing and her girlfriend Sazzle who’d come up at the crack of dawn this morning and were staying in Betsy’s spare room, five people who’d come to our open day in July, some from the library, a couple from Clare’s blanket committee, Issy the midwife’s mum and her best friend and several members of the darts team from Matt’s pub.

When Roger was happy that he’d drilled the instructions into everyone’s heads, I cleared my throat to speak.

‘Before we start,’ I said, ‘I just want to introduce you to Olivia.’

Olivia dutifully put up her hand.

‘She’s going to be live tweeting today’s harvest on behalf of the English Wine Board, so if anyone is a fugitive or a felon or would just rather not be in the photos, speak up.’ I meant it jokingly but two of the darts team looked a bit shifty, so I moved swiftly on, dividing the group into two and nominating Roger and Godfrey as team leaders.

‘Any questions see either myself or one of the Butterworth team,’ I said, clapping my hands together. ‘Good luck, everyone. Harvest 2018 is officially on!’

‘Action stations!’ Roger yelled. ‘My team, follow me to the low slopes.’

Everyone whooped and cheered, and within seconds the crowd had dispersed.

‘Any jobs for an old codger like me?’ The gruff voice from behind me made my breath catch in my throat. It couldn’t be … I whirled around and gasped.

‘Dad!’ I froze, unable to believe what I was seeing. ‘Oh my God, Dad! What on earth …?’

He opened his arms and I didn’t need asking twice. I buried my face in his jumper and bit back tears, determined to show him how strong I was being.

‘Your sister told us you’ve been having a rough time of it, love, so I thought it was time I came home and gave my little girl some support.’