‘It is a bit,’ Sue had to concede. ‘But not entirely. We haven’t been as kind to each other as we could have been.’

He looked up at her. ‘I heard, about your dinner with Blake Fletcher. And I noticed the pendant you are wearing. Sue, is there anyone else?’

Sue wanted to laugh at the idea that Rory of all people felt he had the right to ask this question, but she didn’t.

‘No,’ she told him. ‘There isn’t. But you know what, Rory, I really hope that one day, there might be.’

A little later, Sue took herself off along the corridors and hallways of her family home to open some of the closed doors of the disused wing that Tamsyn wanted to occupy. She thought of what it would be like, filled with local people learning a new trade, brides-to-be and their mothers, maybe even some celebrities, and she smiled. It was a really wonderful idea, she couldn’t have wished for more. Which gave her a shiver as she thought of the note that had come with the Christmas pudding necklace. She took her phone out of her pocket and found Nick’s number and dialled it. She had no idea how the gift had made its way onto her pillow, and the idea that he might have somehow placed it there should have had her taking out a restraining order by rights, but somehow, when it was Nick, she didn’t feel that way.

‘This is Nick,’ a recorded message came on the line. ‘I am now on holiday, see you next December! Ho! Ho! Ho!’

Sue looked at the phone and laughed out loud.

There was no way …

I mean he was just some eccentric old crazy guy …

He couldn’t possibly be … Could he?

Of course he couldn’t be, Sue decided. That was just ridiculous. And yet, she found that she was quite content to leave the mystery there – she didn’t want to know what the logical explanation was.

Silently, she sent Nick a thank you into the ether, and supposed that maybe if one of her Christmas wishes came true, that perhaps she should try making another one, before the clock struck midnight. Just in case.

Looking up at the moon, she let herself dream, just for a moment – a secret wish, that was just between her, the moon and maybe … just maybe, a certain secret Santa.

Epilogue

14 February

‘Well, Liberty love us!’ Tamsyn said, putting her portfolio on the table, fresh from a trip down to London to see the buyers. ‘There are “i”s to be dotted etc., but, Sue, I think Tamsyn Edwards will go into their bridal range!’

‘Fabulous!’ Sue said, hugging Tamsyn, and then, because it was impossible to embrace without including a canine, hugging Duchess too.