For my darling Ada, the best of women.

Yours forever, Barry.

Oh boy. Was I supposed to be not crying?

Joan didn’t exactly help, throwing her arms around Ebenezer’s waist. ‘I’ll never forget you.’

He patted her awkwardly on the head.

‘Promise you’ll make sure Ollie’s okay without me.’

Ebenezer muttered something along the lines of how he’d do his best, but he’d got a lot of other important things that needed doing, and then hobbled back inside.

‘Right, that’s it,’ Peter announced, slamming the van door with a thud.

One last hug, a cringe-worthy fake smile and a wave, and they were gone.

Steph phoned, as promised, but after a brief chat I insisted I was fine and no, she didn’t need to come over, as ‘I don’t mean to be rude but I’d rather be on my own today’.

That feeling lasted for about half an hour.

I wasn’t going to drag Steph over, though. I should have been able to handle feeling sad on my own for a day.

The issue was that I didn’t feel sad; I felt like every last trace of colour had been packed into that van.

I felt like I was already sick and tired of my miserable, moping self, so I yanked on my walking boots, whistled for my dog and went for the kind of furious, pounding march through Bigley Forest that makes it impossible to think.

Forty-five minutes later I was steaming with exertion, sweat dripping down my back when Nesbit pricked up his ears, galloping into the undergrowth before scampering back a few seconds later, his prize in tow.

‘Well, hello, girls,’ I managed, automatically running both hands over my mass of tangled frizz as I braced myself for the appearance of Scout and Willow’s owner.

‘Hey,’ he said, eyebrows raised in surprise as he rounded the corner and found me standing there, wishing I’d changed out of the T-shirt I’d worn to heft boxes into a van.

‘Hi.’

I swallowed hard, focusing on bending down to pet the collies. The rational part of my brain knew that bursting into tears at the sight of Sam would prove more than a little awkward, but I was so pleased and relieved to see him it was all I could do not to launch myself into his arms where it was safe to fall apart.

‘I was on my way to see you.’

‘Oh?’

‘Thought Nesbit might need some cheering up today, so we decided to reply to the party invitation in person.’

‘You remembered?’

He managed to frown and smile at the same time. ‘Of course I did. I’d have come earlier, but we had another forest fire.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ The floodgate burst as a fresh wave of sobbing shook my shoulders.