“Oh my, look at this,” she heard her mother gasp, and turning she saw that Graeme had opened the set of double doors into the dining room, where the table was laid for a banquet and a giant Christmas tree glittered silver and gold in front of a tall sash window. The candles, ornaments, and place settings were silver and gold too, and seeing there were seven people expected to sit down, Claudia found herself relaxing without having realized she was tense. Right now they were only six, so it seemed Dan was coming, and she really had to stop fixating on it, because even if he did, what was she going to do? Tell him she’d changed her mind and would like to meet him for a coffee or lunch? She wouldn’t do it, she knew that already, so why was she giving herself such a hard time over where he was?

As everyone took a seat, sitting where they liked, Graeme seemed aware of her thoughts, as he said, “By the way, Dan is definitely joining us, but he’s been held up so he’s insisting we carry on until he gets here.”

“What’s happened?” Maureen asked, pulling up next to Marcy. “Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. He had a call from his in-laws after the concert last night, apparently one of them had had a fall, so he drove to Dorchester to check that they’re OK.”

“And are they?” Marcy asked.

“I believe so. Their son and daughter-in-law have arrived from Manchester now, so when Dan rang earlier he was just setting off to come back to Kesterly. My guess is he’ll arrive in about half an hour.”

Leaning in to her mother, Jasmine murmured, “You thought he wasn’t coming, didn’t you?”

Claudia kept her head turned away as though she hadn’t heard, while under the table she gave Jasmine a pinch.

He turned up just as the sizzling, bacon-strapped turkey was being carved, and as he was ushered into place at the table opposite Claudia—and given wine, a cracker, and a napkin—she was aware of how pleased everyone was to see him. He, too, was evidently thrilled to see them. The party seemed complete now, slightly more balanced even, given that Graeme was no longer the only man.

Much of the talk over the meal was of Christmases past, hilarious anecdotes of disasters and surprises, long-forgotten memories retrieved and retold with shameless exaggeration. Marcy joined in unabashedly, describing incidents from both Jasmine’s and Claudia’s childhoods as though Christmas with them had always been a joyous and close-family affair. Claudia said little, but found herself laughing along with everyone else, and loved the way that Jasmine did too. Today, with such good friends as these, was no time to remember the terrible recent years with Marcus.