Only one of the candles was extinguished, so he tried again, but still the other two stayed alight.

‘Shall I do it?’ Elodie offered, sliding onto the chair and kneeling beside him.

Bertie looked up at her adoringly. ‘Let’s do it together!’

Everyone cheered and clapped as their joint puffing finally blew out the candles.

Jo cut into the cake and put a giant slice onto a paper plate in front of Bertie. ‘First slice for the birthday boy!’

‘Thank you,’ said Bertie politely, waiting until Jo had looked away, before sliding the plate over to Elodie. ‘You can have the first one,’ he whispered conspiratorially.

Charlotte watched the interaction between the two of them and felt a squeeze of love. The bond they shared was so lovely to see, and having Bertie in her life had helped Elodie enormously after the difficulties of the past few years.

She was a sweet, clever little girl but there was a sadness within her that never seemed to be too far from the surface, which was hardly surprising. She had the same huge, dark eyes and full, bee-sting lips as her mother and it was already clear that she was going to inherit Bella’s beauty. Whether she had also inherited the darker side of her character remained to be seen, but the signs were hopeful that she hadn’t.

‘Do you want some cake, Charlie?’ Elodie broke through Charlotte’s thoughts. ‘You can have some of mine if you want.’

Charlotte walked over and dropped a kiss onto the top of Elodie’s head. ‘No thanks, sweetie. My tummy’s big enough already!’

Elodie threw a sidelong glance at Bertie and they both giggled. Charlotte wagged her finger. ‘Enough of the cheek, you two!’ she teased. ‘Now, who wants another drink?’

‘Me!’ shouted Bertie and Elodie in unison.

‘Me!’ shouted Matt, putting up his hand and pretending to bounce up and down in his seat as everyone laughed.

‘You should be making Charlie one, not the other way round,’ Freya chided him. She put her feet up onto the chair next to her and tilted her face towards the sun, dropping her sunglasses as she did so. ‘But if you’re making one, Charlie, I wouldn’t say no?’

Charlotte laughed and followed Jo, who was heading back into the kitchen. It was a relief to get out of the hot sun and into the cool, calm shade of the house. ‘You sit down,’ Jo told her bossily. ‘I’ll make the drinks.’

Charlotte thought about arguing but her body was protesting too loudly and she was happy to do as she was told.

‘How are you feeling, darling?’ Jo threw over her shoulder, as she bustled about, preparing a fresh round of drinks for everyone, while simultaneously slotting trays into the Aga and preparing different plates of salad.

Charlotte watched her in awe, feeling exhausted by her energy. It was good to see Jo looking so happy and in her element, compared to the husk of a person that she became during that awful, awful time. She would never be completely back to her old self – how could she be after what happened? – but she was certainly a million times better than before. ‘I’m feeling …’ Charlotte began, with a wry smile. ‘Fat, sweaty and knackered!’