I can see the cogs turning in his head as he tries to figure out what I mean. ‘Every time I catch a glimpse of you out in the fields, by the time I’ve climbed across the hedge and come over, you’ve disappeared. I know better than anyone how easy it is to hide in these trees. I just didn’t expect you to be hiding from me.’

‘I’m not hiding from you, I’m shearing trees. There’s a matter of days until the farm opens and there’s a lot of work to be done. You taught me that.’

He nods and kicks at a drift of snow piling up around the bridge railings, his nose red in the freezing air, snowflakes settling in his dark eyebrows when he looks down. I want to tell him about potting up the tiny trees and selling them online, that I’m going to send one to Chelsea to make sure they can survive a journey, and I’m bubbling to tell him about the idea of renting Christmas trees and see if he thinks it’s something to be excited about too, and if he thinks it could be financially viable, but how can I trust anything he says?

‘Tell me what I’ve done?’ His voice breaks and I hate the way he swallows before he speaks again. ‘How can I fix it if you won’t even talk to me? Please, Lee. I thought we had something wonderful here, and something’s obviously gone horribly wrong. Don’t I even deserve to know what?’

I bristle at the words because I don’t know if he hasn’t realised what I’ve found out, or if he genuinely doesn’t comprehend that acting the way he has when he was the other bidder is not okay. ‘I don’t owe you anything,’ I snap. ‘No one asked you to do the things you’ve done for this farm. I’m sorry you won’t get any return on it now but you should’ve thought of that when you started your little scheme.’

‘What?’

We stare at each other for a few long moments, and then I jam my hands back into my pockets. ‘I have to go.’ My voice quivers as I brush past him and concentrate on getting as far away as possible, my thighs burning from the effort of pushing through the snow as I clomp further round the track, praying he doesn’t follow me.