When Marcia, Pete and family returned from Scotland, they all had stinking colds. They took to their beds and, from there, Pete emailed to say that he had looked into my research about Grace and Billy. I hadn’t had a moment to look at his email properly though – there was far too much going on to get distracted.

Heather and I spent long days in the shop. When I’d first taken it on, I’d wanted it to have the look of an art gallery, and we’d achieved that with the stripped and varnished floors, white walls and plenty of light streaming in from the south-facing window that looked out on the main road. I’d chosen the art-deco style for the furnishings, so all the light fittings and furniture were from that era, and my BB logo had been done in art-deco style in black and silver outside. In the window display, I’d not wanted to go the traditional route with the jewellery shown on a series of neck dummies, I’d wanted something more original. Heather and I had gone searching in the antique markets in Notting Hill Gate and found a fabulous, reclining, life-size figure from the 1920s. It had cost a bomb but I bought it instantly and had it sprayed black. We called her Daphne and she now lay in the window wearing an assortment of necklaces and bracelets. To her side was a small table displaying a range of earrings.

‘What will you do with Daphne when we finally leave the shop?’ Heather asked as we took down the last of the silver Christmas decorations and put up sale signs.

‘She’ll come with me. Maybe she’s my true soulmate: she’s consistent, stable and never answers back.’

‘Sounds like the perfect match,’ agreed Heather.

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In the evenings, we went through all our stock in the back room, pricing things down, displaying the better items in counters and cabinets at the front, ready for the day and opening hours. We advertised on Instagram and Facebook, then tweeted times and bargains of the day. Our efforts paid off and the shop drew a steady flow of people most days in the first two weeks of January. The hardest part was letting the suppliers of the filler items that we sold in the shop – mainly greetings cards handmade by local artists – know that I wouldn’t be using them or restocking their work for a while, if ever.

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