‘At least you had someone to care about you. From the moment Dad died, Mum seemed to give up on life. She wouldn’t set foot outside the house. She couldn’t face any of the neighbours. I wasn’t allowed to talk about his death to any of them, but I confided in my closest school friend, Jo.’

‘You were lucky to have her.’

‘Yeah, I was. She was really supportive.’

Max put his arm across her shoulders and kissed her temple.

‘I had to do all the shopping for Mum, cut her hair, and get the doctor to come to the house if she fell ill. Sometimes it felt like I’d have been better off on my own, which was a bit mean because I realise now that she must have been in a deep depression.’ She pulled out a bunch of sleigh bells woven onto a thick gilt rope and gave them a gentle ring.

‘Our child will know and love Christmas,’ he said, ‘I promise.’

Maddy nodded. ‘I want everything to be right for this baby.’ She cupped the curve of her bump. ‘Mum used to say it was Dad who spoilt Christmas, not her. But it was her who let the misery go on for all those years.’

‘What, she blamed him because he died?’ Max wiped away her tears with his fingertips.

‘She said everything was his fault.’ Maddy picked out a silver fairy. It glinted in the light. Its delicate mesh petticoats were beginning to crumble to dust. ‘I don’t think she realised how much it affected me too. I wanted to go to college and on to university to study horticulture, but I couldn’t leave her alone, especially when her drinking got worse.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ He squeezed her hand.

‘Before everything happened, Christmas was a magical time for us. I remember Dad lifting me up to put this fairy on top of the tree. He bought it in Hamleys when we were in London to see the panto, Mother Goose. I’d never seen Mum so happy. She wore a glamorous sparkling emerald dress and a honey-coloured coney fur coat, and we all strolled arm in arm down The Strand, with huge snowflakes blowing about us in the night sky.’ For a moment, Maddy’s face was animated, lost in the memory. She picked out a felt Father Christmas and slipped her finger through the golden thread.