She tried to hold back the smile, fearing that he’d be able to sense it from the other end of the phone.

‘Don’t smile.’

‘I’m not,’ she protested weakly.

‘Yes, you are. I can hear it. As surely as I can hear the words “I told you so” circling in your head.’

‘Well, I did try to—’

‘Lily Atwell, you can crow all you like later. Just, please, help me fix this. If it’s not harvested soon the whole crop will be wasted and as you’re all about zero waste … Please?’

‘OK, OK,’ she relented. ‘How long do you think we have?’

‘Realistically, it needs to be done tomorrow.’

‘Henry!’

‘I didn’t know, Lily. I’ve been busy helping out with the wedding.’

She couldn’t really fault him there. They’d both been so busy with it in the last few weeks. ‘OK, here’s what we do. You call John, he’s got the phone tree—’

‘A phone what?’

‘Tree, it’s a cascading phone list.’

‘But he’s in South Africa.’

‘Nope, he got back two days ago.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. He’ll take care of the key people and I’ll take care of the rest. I promise, Henry. It’ll be fine. You just have to trust me.’

Hanging up the phone, she peered into the restaurant to find exactly the person she was looking for.

‘Oh Kate, that was Henry,’ she said, loudly enough for her voice to travel. Kate was looking at her as if she’d just lost her mind.

‘But—’

‘He’s really stuck. The Bacchus is ready to be harvested,’ she pressed on despite the fact that Kate was now looking around to see if she could fathom why her boss had taken on the projection of a Shakespearean actress. ‘And he has no one to help him. It’s such a shame that the town can’t come together to help him out in his hour of need.’

Hour of need? Kate mouthed at Lily as if she’d gone too far.

‘I’ll have to go up to the estate tomorrow, but I’m really not sure how much one person can help …’ she said, dramatically shrugging her shoulders. OK. She knew she’d never win an acting award, but when Mrs Whittaker popped up to pay her wine bill and promptly disappeared with something a little like glee in her eyes, Lily relaxed and sighed.

‘What was that about?’ Kate demanded.