‘Of course! You’re a local hero! Everyone knows how you ended up putting up all those people during the floods. I have to admit, I was rather worried that we were going to end up going in the sea, when the wind was at its worse. Our garden is now a foot shorter at the back.’

‘Wow, and I thought we were the ones that had all the hurricanes over in the States,’ Blake said.

‘It’s so pretty,’ Sue gasped in delight, her eyes shining as she looked around the tiny dining room, which had been filled with candles, casting amber pools of light in the darkness. A tree decorated with handmade wooden ornaments stood in the corner, and a real fire crackled merrily in the grate. At the centre of the room stood a table for two, laid with simple white tablecloth and silver cutlery.

‘Please take a seat,’ Jack said. ‘Your first course will be with you directly.’

‘I hope you don’t mind.’ Blake smiled, and Sue did her best not to notice how his blue eyes were fringed with the thickest of lashes. ‘But I took the liberty of asking Jack to prepare a Christmas special menu just for us. He cooked for my last birthday, and it was sublime.’

‘Oh, you had your birthday here, that’s nice,’ Sue said.

‘Actually, I flew him out to LA.’ Blake looked rather charmingly embarrassed by his celebrity, riches and fame.

‘What must life be like for you?’ Sue asked him. ‘Isn’t it strange that you can just buy anything you want in the world? I mean if you don’t have anything to wish for don’t you ever get bored? Your Christmas list must be very short.’

‘Bored?’ Blake laughed ‘No, I don’t get bored. I suppose I would if I just flew chefs around the world to make me razor clam spaghetti, but I try to use my … influence for good. I do a lot of charity work, try to make good movies that people will think about …’ He caught Sue’s sceptical expression. ‘You’re laughing at me,’ he said, but without offence.

‘It’s just the way that you’re talking,’ Sue said. ‘Anyone would think you were Mother Teresa, not an actor.’

Blake chuckled. ‘You’re good for me, Sue, I should keep you around all of the time.’

‘Well, you’d have to move to Poldore for good.’ Sue relaxed as a young man poured wine into her glass. ‘I’d never leave this place.’

‘Really, even if I gave it my best shot to sweep you off your feet, and take you away to a life of glamour and pampering in Beverly Hills, you wouldn’t be tempted?’

‘What would you want me hanging around your mansion for, I’d just get in the way of Elena.’

Blake looked blank.

‘Elena, your girlfriend? Or perhaps you give them numbers to make life easier.’