By the end of the main course, when he belched loudly, Liv wasn’t sure if she wanted to strangle him, Barbara or her own mother for making him drunk – even if she hadn’t meant to. Measures were never Yvonne’s strong point. Somehow, Liv managed to keep calm and found herself talking too much to cover over his obvious bad manners, but inside, she was ripping. How could he not realise that he was becoming drunker with each sip of wine he was knocking back? How dare he turn up here without so much as a token for her parents and then sit there as if his place at their table was his due?

‘So, then, Eddie,’ her mother said, trying to jolly things along and take the focus away from Barbara’s complaining about the new doctor in the village. ‘I hear you’ve been really busy this year in the run-up to Christmas?’

‘Yeah, well…’ he managed before draining his wine glass.

‘I expect it sets you up for the cold month of January,’ her father chimed in, obviously delighted to be moving away from the bitching session Barbara wanted to embark on about recent changes to the village surgery.

‘Have you made anything exciting this year?’ Maya asked, when Eddie said nothing for a while. A year earlier, he’d made a pendant for a C-list celebrity who was more famous now for her plastic surgery than any other notable career credits. His mother had obviously hoped that it would catapult him into making the next crown jewels and she’d told the whole village about it. ‘Any royal engagement rings? Earrings for Michelle Obama? A toe ring for Madonna?’ She was laughing now, but that was Maya – full of joie de vivre after a single glass of mulled wine.

‘No famous people this year, but he’s made some beautiful pieces,’ Liv said, thinking of the ring that was sitting out in his car waiting to be slipped onto her finger later.

‘I’m sure you have,’ her mother said warmly. ‘You really are quite brilliant.’ She fingered the tiny brooch that Liv had commissioned for her a few years earlier. It was only made from silver and synthetic diamonds, but she loved it as much as if it was a priceless gem.