The kid from the kitchen rushed through unscrewing the bottle of brandy, just as the waitress passed Kate the coffee cup, which she held out to Kev, and Henry watched half in horror half in fascination as a rather unhealthy dose of brandy was added to the dark rich liquid.

This will send her over the edge, Kate mouthed at him over Lily’s head.

‘What will?’ he tried again, ignoring the fact Kate hadn’t actually spoken out loud.

‘Lily, it’s OK. We’re going to fix this. It’s going to be fine,’ Kate said to Lily, who now had her head in her hands, and had been reduced to a low painful-sounding groan.

‘Oh, for God’s sake, will someone just tell me what is going on?’ Henry’s authoritative voice crashed over the entire restaurant.’

‘My Dream Wedding are the wedding decorators,’ Kate hissed as if trying not to upset Lily further.

‘There’s such a thing?’ he questioned.

She glared at him in response.

‘Right, not important. Carry on,’ he gestured.

‘They’re providing all the decorations for the orangery,’ Lily groaned from where her head was almost between her legs in a classic panic-attack pose. ‘The … Oh God. The wedding arch!’

As if it was just sinking in, Lily started to emit a worryingly high-pitched moan of panic and no one seemed to know what to do. Kev was looking at the waitress, who was looking at Kate, who was staring, startled, at Lily.

Any thought of just swinging by to inform Lily of the answering-machine message and returning to the estate evaporated. It was clear to him that no one in the restaurant was used to seeing Lily in such a state, and he wasn’t surprised. Usually she was always in control, always knew what to do, or what to say.

‘Well, it was only a matter of time that—’

‘Not now, Mrs Whittaker,’ Kate and Henry said at the same time to the woman who had stayed clearly only to take in the drama.

He couldn’t bear it. The panicked and the distraught look on Lily’s face, now that she had righted herself back up to sitting.

‘Kate, I need another coffee, one for me, another brandy for Lily, pen and paper, and Lily’s going to need the rest of the day off,’ he commanded.

They all jumped to attention, Kate going for the phone, Emma to the coffee machine, and Kev passed Henry a pad of paper and a pen.

He caught Kate’s gaze. Has she eaten? He mouthed over Lily’s head. Kate pulled a face and disappeared into the kitchen. While he waited for her to return, he got his phone out, pulled up the search engine and typed in wedding decorations. An improbable amount of hits came up and he nearly recoiled from the images on the sidebar.

He was beginning to understand the cause for concern.