Heather pointed at the letters waiting on the table in front of us. ‘I guess he’s put it all in there. He said there’d be an official letter. Let’s see exactly what we’re facing.’

I ripped the first envelope open and read, ‘Yep, it’s from Greg.’ I quickly scanned what he’d written – ‘sorry, no choice, feels bad, blah-de-blah.’

I passed her the letter.

‘So what are we going to do?’ she asked when she’d read it.

‘Rethink the plan.’

‘Join a nunnery?’

‘Could do. I need to change something, though. The signs have been there for a few months now – longer, even. Fewer people passing through come into the shop, and those that do want a bargain. I can’t compete with eBay, Amazon, Wowcher and all the other lower-cost sites that offer more for less.’

‘Tell me about it. I’ve had a number of customers lately who come in, look, then announce that they could get similar stuff cheaper elsewhere. But come on, we’ve ridden a few storms before, it’s not over yet.’

‘Of course not. We will just have to reorganize things. We might have to let the part-time staff go, though,’ I said. ‘God, I hate having to do that. No one wants that kind of news first thing in the New Year.’

‘I know.’

‘And we’ve still got the website, though sales through that have been slow over the past year too.’

‘You OK, Bea?’

‘Sure. I just didn’t expect it to be so final, or so soon.’

‘Me neither. Will you look for other premises?’

‘Possibly not. I’ll have to think about it. Talk over options with Stuart. In the meantime, it might be best to sell off stock.’ I grimaced. ‘And I just ordered some things to be sent from India too. Stupid of me really, but it was hard to resist when I was out there.’

‘Don’t worry, it always goes in the end if we price it right. We had a decent December while you were away but we both know January will be our lowest month. People have spent up, everyone’s cutting back.’

‘New Year sale then, that might shift some stock.’ I picked up the envelope that had arrived this morning and ripped it open. ‘One more letter. Maybe it’s someone telling us we’ve won the lottery.’ I read the contents and groaned.

‘What? Good or bad?’

‘Bad. Worse.’ I waved the letter in the air. ‘Interest rates are rising. My mortgage is going up.’