Max tried to calm the boys down and explain over their heads. ‘It’s all something to do with St Nicholas. Samichlaus looks quite a bit like our Santa Claus, though with a bishop’s hat and crook. He and his sidekicks collect money for children’s charities.’

The noise grew as everyone tucked into cooked meats, cheeses, beer or lemonade followed by chocolate cake decorated with walnut halves. Lily found herself sharing a corner of the dining table with Garrick and took the opportunity to ask about where he and Eleanor lived, lower down in the town. She tried to bring Eleanor into the conversation but came to the conclusion that her half-brother’s wife was almost as wintry as the weather outside. She seemed on a mission to reply in as few words as possible, especially compared to warm and chatty Garrick.

Eventually she left Garrick and Eleanor to chat with Ona and instead Lily listened in to Isaac talking to Tubb about making more money at The Three Fishes without losing the good things about it. He talked knowledgeably about how much more Juno Lounge used to pay to the brewery for supplies in wet rent and that it didn’t offset the discount he got on dry rent – whatever that meant. They discussed the influence of sports TV on filling a pub and how during the World Cup pubs reported increases in sales of up to two hundred per cent.

‘If The Three Fishes was mine I’d probably enlarge the area with the dartboard and TV and partition it off. Make it a sports bar so the regulars who hate the TV and the noise of twenty people shouting at it when footy’s on aren’t driven away,’ Isaac said as Tubb nodded interestedly. Lily began to think it a shame Isaac was leaving the hospitality trade because he obviously understood so much.

Presently, they all climbed into their outdoor clothes and boots and tramped down into the centre of Schützenberg – except Ona, for whom such exertion was banned and who settled down with a sigh and the TV remote. Doggo yawned and got up on the sofa to keep her company.

Plenty of other people bundled in coats and hats were headed in the same direction as them, chattering and laughing as they tramped down the hill towards the streets strung with lights. Much of the centre had been closed to traffic and the snow cleared. The evening breeze carried a muffled, rhythmic noise and they glimpsed moving lights higher up the slope.

‘It’s one of the processions.’ Max held Keir on his shoulders. ‘Apparently there are six and they all meet where the roads converge.’

‘And they have donkeys, don’t they, Daddy?’ demanded Dugal, who Janice held tightly by the hand.