‘I’d hope so. We’ve been instructed not to pass you any chestnut stuffing until we’ve heard it.’

The rest of the day passed precisely as scheduled by my mother. After we’d lingered around the table until well into the afternoon, the laughter and stories continued in the kitchen while most of us cleared up, Mum and Nana Joy retiring to the living room with the children. Henry and I snuck the animatronic elf inside and hid him in the pantry. I ended up bent double in an uncontrollable fit of giggles thanks to Jed’s reaction when he opened the door and found it.

‘Funniest ever Christmas moment,’ Henry wheezed, once he’d found enough breath to speak. Mia simply raised a suggestive eyebrow at the two of us and dragged her furious husband out of the kitchen.

The reaction to my retelling of the final interview round was as predicted. What else could I have done? Who would want to work for someone like that, anyway? There’d be other opportunities, ones that didn’t involve compromising my values or trampling on fellow professionals.

I grabbed onto their encouraging words, held them tight, and tried my best to believe them.

After clean-up, we finally got to open presents. Unlike most years, my parents didn’t give each other items made by a student in one of the practical classes. To everyone’s surprise, they swapped tickets for a cruise.

‘Two weeks in the Mediterranean on a luxury, adult-only cruise ship,’ Elana read from the accompanying leaflet. ‘Join us on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.’

‘Can I come on an adventure, too?’ Daisy asked. ‘Please!’

‘Duh, it’s adults only,’ Elana scoffed.

‘I’ll be very quiet and growned up,’ Daisy pleaded, causing Elana to merely roll her eyes and keep reading.

‘A cruise?’ Jed asked. ‘What brought this on?’

Mum tipped her chin in the air. ‘We’re having our first holiday in nearly ten years. Perhaps we finally got tired and fancied a break.’

‘It doesn’t look cheap.’

‘Well, given that we’re half a million pounds short, I don’t think a couple of thousand will make that much difference!’

Dad reached over to Mum from the neighbouring armchair and took her hand. ‘It’s from our personal savings, nothing to do with the school funds. And if you want to know the truth, we felt it was time to focus on something other than Charis House. Something we can look forward to.’

He stopped there, but the unspoken words hung in the air as potent as the scent of pine tree.

In case we have to close the school.

Daisy mercifully saved us from lingering on that thought too long.

‘Nana Joy, here is your present from me and Frankie and Elana. It’s a book that you listen to because Mummy said your eyes are too old to read any more. Nana Joy?’