My legs did feel a bit wobbly and although I was hungry and ready for lunch, it was a relief to be out of the wind for a moment so I headed for the desk where Godfrey was sitting and flopped down on the spare chair just as my stomach gave a loud rumble. The radio was on low thankfully: Godfrey was into jazz music, which to me always sounded like the musicians couldn’t agree on which tune to play so they all played something different.

‘It’s a mixed blessing having such a good harvest,’ said Godfrey, taking the lid off his lunchbox and offering me a sandwich. ‘Five years ago if we’d worked this hard with a team this large we’d have our feet up by now. But this year we’ve got such a big yield.’

‘I dream of putting my feet up.’ I helped myself to a ham and pickle sandwich. There was frilly lettuce hanging out of it and the bread was thick, soft and crumbly. ‘Oh Godfrey, this is heavenly.’

‘Home-made bread,’ he beamed.

‘And I know it’s hard work, but it’ll be worth it when we’re bottling lots of lovely wine next year.’

Godfrey’s eyes flicked briefly to my stomach and I felt my face heat up; I knew what he was thinking: that I’d be more concerned with baby bottles than wine bottles by then. But I couldn’t think that far ahead at the moment.

‘The lunch break will have to be short and sweet,’ Matt said grimly, joining us. ‘We haven’t got enough grapes to fill the press yet. And I want to get another load in and pressed before I go to bed tonight.’

The pile of plastic crates overflowing with juicy green grapes looked huge, but even I could tell we were working at a slower rate than yesterday.

‘It’s this wind,’ I said, looking out at the sky. Still no sign of rain, thank heavens. ‘It’s slowing us all down. Walking back uphill was such an effort.’

‘Then you shouldn’t be doing it.’ Matt frowned so deeply that his black eyebrows met in the middle.

I held up a hand to silence him and whacked up the volume on the radio just in time for a weather report. ‘Shush and listen.’

Storm Sandra is tightening its grip on the UK as it wreaks havoc on the road and rail system in the north-east of England. Thousands of homes are without power and two deaths have already been reported in storm-related accidents. Winds of up to seventy miles per hour have been recorded in Northumberland and the hurricane-force gusts are showing no signs of abating. The Met Office is warning people to stay off the roads as Storm Sandra heads south through Yorkshire, Derbyshire and the Midlands …