‘And this is the dining room.’ Sue stood in front of the long polished table that stretched into the far distance. It seemed like an age since it had last been filled with people eating, although in recent times Tamsyn had been using it while she set up her couture wedding dress design business. Sue missed her being around since she’d found workshop space to rent. It had been fun to see all the comings and goings, and she had enjoyed her lunchtime cups of tea with her newest friend. Still, after Wash had decided to unravel a bolt of expensive shot silk and then relieve himself in the middle of the nest he’d made from it, Sue supposed it was inevitable that Tamsyn wouldn’t want to stay.

‘The table is seventeenth century,’ Sue told Nick, running her hand along the polished surface. ‘And the windows are incredibly rare, survivors from the Elizabethan house that stood here before this incarnation. Thank goodness the builder had the foresight to save them, there are only four sets of full-length sixteenth century windows like this in Europe.’

‘Surely you must be eligible to some grants?’ Nick asked her. ‘To help you maintain something so precious.’

‘It’s a private home, you see,’ Sue said. ‘It’s up to me. Unless I want to have all and sundry traipsing through the place all the time.’

For a moment she looked out into the darkness, the town picked out beneath her in points of light, like an inverted starry sky, the strings of coloured lights that decorated the harbour glowing in the gloom, the start atop the town Christmas tree looking so bright and hopeful. And beyond that the silver sliver of the moon, cresting the waves with light far out at sea.

The trouble was, it didn’t matter to anyone else but her, how much she loved this place. This was simply another heartbreak that she would have to face alone. But not this year, for the rest of this year she was still the owner of the most wonderful home in the world, and she just had to cling on to that and try not to think about what would happen next. This Christmas had to be perfect.

‘Anyway, it’s nearly ten.’ Sue suddenly wanted to be alone. ‘I’ve got to go and label all the costumes for the pageant before bedtime so …’

‘Don’t you get lonely?’ Nick asked quite suddenly, his theatrical tone softening unexpectedly.

‘Lonely?’ Sue shook her head. ‘No, I mean I know everyone in this town, I have Cordelia, my children, my dogs …’

‘But no husband?’ Nick asked.

Sue was taken aback for a moment by the comment that seemed so personal, but she supposed it was true. She had no husband.

‘He’s left me, so I suppose not,’ she said, testing the words out loud.

‘He’s a damn fool,’ Nick told her.