Though touched, Lily shook her head. ‘I’m not going to stay late anyway. I have a busy day tomorrow. I need to go to Zürich first thing to see the stand and check everything’s working, then join you guys for lunch and a trip around the locality before we go to the Christmas market in the evening – our first singing event!’

He nodded. ‘Max has been chatting to me about what I’m going to do.’

Alarm wriggled through her. ‘Are we imposing too much? I suppose the schedule was set when I was the driver so naturally I’d be available all the time.’

He looked surprised. ‘And so will I be, but I told Max about my instructor plans and he says he’ll ask one of his neighbours to tell me about the outdoorsy mountain stuff in summer. Lots of hiking, clambering about in canyons, rope parks and water sports apparently.’ A light of excitement glowed in his eyes.

‘Great,’ she said enthusiastically, through a sinking realisation that the clock was ticking on their affair before it had properly begun.

Around them cutlery clinked and voices chattered. Isaac dipped his head close to hers. ‘How did you get on with Garrick?’

‘He seems just as lovely as I’d dared hope,’ Lily murmured back. ‘I sound like a love-sick teenager talking about her latest crush but it’s an astonishing, amazing thing to meet him. If we’d all been brought up together it would be different but …’ She had to blink back a tear. ‘Eleanor seems very nice too. I wasn’t able to exchange more than a couple of words with my nephew, Xander, but Myla’s great. Meeting them all was awesome,’ she ended inadequately.

The warmth of Isaac’s smile suggested he was enjoying her magical moments. ‘I’m glad.’ His breath was warm on her neck. ‘All we need is a little alone time for you and me and then everything will be perfect.’

Heat swept up Lily’s body. She began to say, ‘I’m not sure how we’re going to find alone time—’ when she was interrupted by clinking of forks on glasses and a portly man in his forties clearing his throat portentously.

‘Excuse me interrupting your meal, but I have discovered that one of our new friends, though she lives in England now, is from my own country of Poland!’ He paused while people exclaimed. ‘She has kindly agreed to sing a Polish carol for me, Anioł Pasterzom Mówił, which means “The Angel Told the Shepherds”.’

A smattering of applause greeted Franciszka as she stepped forward, blushing. ‘We have no instruments this evening but perhaps the rest of the Middletones can help a little?’ She looked at Lily.