‘That’s all right,’ I said, sitting in the chair next to the fire which, in view of the chilly weather, I’d already cleaned out, messily remade and fumblingly lit. ‘I knew it probably wasn’t a good time, but I wanted to talk to you.’

‘How’s the weather?’ he asked before I had a chance to elaborate. ‘I checked the forecast first thing and it looked like you might be getting some of the white stuff.’

‘Yes,’ I confirmed, ‘everything was white when I got up this morning and actually,’ I added, looking over to the window, ‘it’s coming down again now.’

‘That’s something you won’t have to worry about over here,’ he said and I could hear the smile in his voice. ‘It’s twenty-seven degrees today.’

‘Wow,’ I said, trying to imagine the warmth on my skin and the hot breeze caressing my bare legs even though my calendar was flipped to December. ‘That sounds wonderful.’

‘It is,’ he said. ‘So, are you home alone then? I’m guessing Dolly’s in school. I thought you were going in with her? You aren’t sick of all those screaming kids already are you?’ He added with a chuckle. ‘Have you abandoned ship? I wouldn’t blame you if you had.’

‘No,’ I told him, feeling a little riled. ‘Dolly and I have a day off.’

The children at school didn’t scream, well not indoors anyway, and I wasn’t sick of helping out at all. Far from it, in fact.

‘She’s still in bed actually.’

‘What, at this time? She isn’t ill, is she?’

‘No,’ I said, biting back my annoyance when he was so obviously concerned about my friend. ‘She’s just tired.’

‘That’s all right then. I don’t want you playing nursemaid as well as childminder during your holiday.’

My irritation began to prickle again. He wasn’t quite so concerned about Dolly then, just unhappy about the thought of me pandering to someone other than him. I decided it was time to pull the conversation back to the original reason for my call before I ended up not telling him about the card at all.

‘Look, Jonathan,’ I began, ‘there was a reason why I was ringing.’

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you did say there was something. What is it?’

‘Well,’ I said nervously, the words unhelpfully sticking like treacle. ‘It was never meant to happen. And I’m so sorry that it has.’

I felt my eyes fill with tears which were of no help at all and my voice caught in my throat.

‘Hey,’ said Jonathan, ‘Hattie. Don’t cry, not when I’m so far away. Whatever is it? It can’t be that bad.’

‘It is,’ I sniffed.

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘tell me what’s happened and let me decide if it’s the disaster you’re imagining. I’ll bet it isn’t.’