Seeing the yellow and lime green streaks threading through her small riot of curls, Claudia realized she must have been decorating the new (at least to them) second-floor flat that she and Archie had recently moved into on a smaller, less crime-infested estate behind Paradise Cove. Apparently, it had two bedrooms, a galley kitchen, and a large sitting room with a balcony that overlooked a municipal playing field. Since this was one of the public spaces Archie was taking care of as part of his community service, he’d gotten to know several people who used it, and had even joined a five-a-side football team.

“’ELLO!” Maria called out to Dan as she headed off in the other direction to fetch her cleaning kit. “Shall I star’ in your craff room, Clau’ia?”

“That would be lovely, thank you,” Claudia replied, and leaving her to it she went to join Dan at the Aga, where he was studying a recipe she’d downloaded onto her iPad.

“So today is a practice run?” he asked, needing to be clear.

Readily accepting the change of subject now that Maria was nearby, and actually glad to do so anyway, Claudia said, “It’s to make sure we can do it, because apparently beef Wellington can be quite difficult.”

“So why are we doing it? Oh, that’s right, it’s Richie’s favorite. And we’re sure he wants to celebrate his birthday with us?”

“Not just us, everyone’s coming, and remember we decided to have this party before we knew it was his birthday. So this is to make sure it’s acknowledged.”

“There’s a problem with cake?”

“Too predictable, apparently. Anyway, here’s another lovely surprise for you, Jasmine and Abby have hired a music system for the night.”

His eyes narrowed curiously. “And that’s a lovely surprise, because?”

“I don’t know, I’m quoting them, but I’m told we’ll know more soon. Oh, and they want the whole thing to be outside if possible, so they’re borrowing heaters from Leanne and Tom. My job, apparently, is to decorate the house for Christmas . . .”

“Ah, so it’s also a Christmas party?”

“Let’s just call it a party. And we want to have one. Don’t we?”

“We do, so let’s get started on this Wellington that I’m guessing will be dinner tonight no matter how it turns out.”

Assuring him he was right, she began opening cupboard doors and passing him the ingredients they were going to need.

It wasn’t long before they were so engrossed in their task, along with listening to a play on Radio 4, that they didn’t hear another car pulling up outside. They weren’t even aware of Maria going to open the front door to let the visitor in. The first they knew of his arrival was when he said, “Well, this is cozy.”