He gave a rueful shrug. ‘Just trying to do the decent thing.’

‘I don’t know whether to ask about this crush. I feel like I should know about it, but I don’t want things to get awkward.’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t twig at the time.’ Henry blew out a sigh. ‘It was a standard teenage-boy-with-no-female-friends obsession. You were the obvious target.’

‘Except that I had a boyfriend.’

‘In a way, that made it easier. It was a great excuse to avoid doing anything about it apart from listen to depressing music while wallowing in my cursed existence.’

‘I cannot believe that teenage Henry Fairfax was capable of wallowing.’

‘A temporary state induced by the adolescent changes in my brain. I got over it. No need for any awkwardness now.’

‘That’s a relief. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for your broken heart.’

He smiled. ‘Top Christmas film?’

Subject closed.

‘That’s the last of it,’ Henry said, stepping in the front door.

I looked at the pitiful number of logs in his arms with dismay. ‘That won’t last us the night.’

He carefully placed them on the floor a safe distance away from the fireplace. ‘The snow’s so deep that we won’t find anything else dry enough to burn.’

‘So we’re now on heating rations, as well as water.’ I added it to the list of complaints that I’d be reporting to the letting agents as soon as we had Internet or they were answering the phone again.

‘If we keep the doors shut then hopefully we can retain some heat in here.’

‘What about upstairs, though? There was ice on the inside of the bedroom window when we arrived. That roof keeps in about as much heat as a tent.’

‘I’ll sleep upstairs. I can borrow Beyoncé’s trick and layer up. Unless you’d rather I had the sofa?’

I handed him his hot chocolate. ‘I won’t be able to sleep knowing you’re upstairs potentially slipping into a hypothermic coma. Could we both sleep in here? If we bring down the pillows and bedding, use the extra cushions, one of us could sleep on the floor.’

‘If you’re sure?’

‘We’ve already spent two nights as roomies, might as well make it a third if it avoids freezing to death.’

It didn’t take long to create a makeshift bed in front of the fire. We agreed that I’d take the sofa, with a duvet for warmth, and Henry would take the floor, with two blankets and assorted clothing.

We added a carefully rationed-out log to the fire, turned off the lights, and settled in, trying to ignore the temperature already dropping.