‘They couldn’t be that attached if they left them for months on end to go off travelling around the world,’ Rick had argued.

‘But they trusted me to take good care of the cats in their absence,’ Willow had said, close to tears, ‘and I promised no harm would come to them.’

‘Then you shouldn’t have gone off to your sister and left me in charge of them. Especially when I’m allergic to the blighters.’

She hadn’t expected that from him, but maybe he was right. If only she had put her sister off as he’d suggested and gone to the gym with him, she wouldn’t be in the mess she was now. And in point of fact, it hadn’t done much good spending the afternoon with Martha, because all her sister had done was complain about Mum lying to them. All that moaning she’d been forced to listen to and then the shock of discovering Cedric was missing. She’d had better days.

Since then she had trawled the neighbourhood looking for Cedric, knocking on doors and collaring people in the street to ask if they’d seen a Siamese cat. Nobody had. He had completely disappeared.

‘I think we have to face facts,’ Rick said now as she sat at the kitchen table following another fruitless search. ‘Without any experience in roaming the streets, Cedric will have been run over almost immediately. Do you know if he was chipped?’

‘Yes, he was. Both cats were.’

‘Then I suppose there’s a chance you might hear something from a vet.’

‘But it would be Simon and Lucy who the vet would contact, not me. Oh, what am I going to do?’ she said miserably.

‘We’ll tell them the truth,’ he said, crouching down in front of her, ‘that it was my fault by leaving the door open.’

‘No,’ she said, ‘that won’t do. Cedric was my responsibility; I can’t let you take the blame.’

Taking her hands in his, he raised them to his lips and kissed them. ‘I had no idea you were such a brave little stoic. But the good news is that you’ll be leaving here very soon and coming to live with me where you won’t have any cats to worry about. You’ll just have me to worry about,’ he added with a smile. ‘And I think you’ll agree, I’m much better housetrained than a cat. No hairs on the furniture and no litter tray to deal with.’

Thinking how tidy he was, that even when he cooked a meal, he never made a mess in the kitchen, she managed a small smile in return. ‘You know what really marks you out from all other men I’ve dated?’

He feigned a look of shock. ‘My God, you mean I’m not the first man in your life?’

Shaking her head, she said, ‘I’m afraid not.’

‘But tell me what marks me out as special then?’

‘You never ever leave the loo seat up.’

He laughed. ‘What can I say? Other than that must make me perfect.’