‘How about you say, “I’m going out with Isaac” and I say “I’m going out with Lily”?’ He tried to take her uninjured hand but with his ski mittens and her insulated gloves, their hands slithered apart.

Lily’s butterflies dive-bombed back into her tummy. ‘It seems kind of … particular.’

He slowed to a stop. His voice was soft and low. ‘If looking “particular” makes you uncomfortable we can take Doggo and walk somewhere, but I’d like to spend time with you. Not the you looking after the Middletones, not the you doing business with British Country Foods, not the you anxious about the various parts of your family, not the you serving at The Three Fishes. I want a couple of hours of just Lily.’ His earring peeped out from his woollen hat beside the ends of his dark hair.

‘Sounds lovely,’ she murmured.

Doggo raced back in a shower of snow to see what was keeping them and they went to join the others to hear Max telling them that the two-metre-tall sticks along the trail showed how deep the snow would get in the depths of winter. Emily looked at him with frank disbelief. ‘They’re taller than me. You can’t get that much snow.’

Max grinned. ‘Believe me – you can! In January and February you’d sink without trace.’

The temperature was beginning to fall as the shadows lengthened so they headed back, slithering down the steep trail through the spiky green pines to Schützenberg to get ready for the Christmas market.

As they reached the car park fresh flakes of snow began to fall, stinging skin like love bites from the Snow Queen.

Isaac was still enjoying the ‘king of the road’ feeling he got behind the wheel of the minibus, as the snow drifted down like feathers in the darkness. Boys and their toys, he thought, steering the large vehicle out of Toblerstrasse to pick up the others. Everyone was thanking him and praising him for dropping everything to come on this trip but he was having a great time, especially with Lily jiggling with excitement in the seat beside him.

When they reached the Little Apartments the others bounced into the minibus in various stages of anticipation and nervousness to join Franciszka in the back.

‘Everyone got their overshirts, hats and scarves?’ Lily demanded, craning between the headrests. Amidst assurances that they had Isaac set off downhill to the car park near the central square.