‘And the kids will be so fired up they won’t be interested in your jumper by then,’ she pointed out. ‘You’ll be able to take the cardigan off after lunch. I’ll see if I’ve got a thin one. I’m sure I’ve got a red one that will fit the bill somewhere.’

‘If only you could turn the lights off,’ I called after her as she went back up the stairs and someone knocked on the door.

‘But where would the fun be in that?’ she called back. ‘Can you answer that?’

I hesitated for a moment and then decided that the reaction of the person standing on the doorstep would be a good indicator of the response I was most likely to get all day. I pulled it open with a flourish and found myself face to face with a giant knitted Rudolph complete with glowing nose.

I looked up as Beamish looked down and he started to laugh.

‘Don’t,’ I said, stepping back to let him in. ‘Don’t say a word.’

‘Well I don’t know about your Christmas Wish List,’ he smirked, ‘but that was definitely on mine.’

‘Oh thank you very much,’ I said primly.

Given that I was trying to look as unappealing to him as possible after the Wishing Tree moment, lighting up my breasts wasn’t the wisest of moves.

‘What am I going to do?’ I moaned, looking back up the stairs to where I could hear Dolly rifling through her wardrobe. ‘This was Dolly’s present, but I can’t wear it, can I?’

‘Well you can’t offend her,’ he whispered back. ‘You’ll just have to brazen it out. Perhaps the batteries will run out by the time the bell goes. That might help.’

I checked the time. It was still early so there was some hope.

‘Perhaps,’ I said, fighting down the urge to reach out and squeeze Rudolph’s red flashing nose. ‘Anyway, what are you doing here? Is everything all right?’

‘I told Dolly that if there was any frost, I’d pick you up this morning. She said she wanted to go in early today and it’s a bit dicey out there. Did she not mention it?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘she didn’t, but as you’re here, you can help me with the breakfast.’

Thankfully Dolly’s red cardigan did go some way to covering my embarrassment. In fact, I think I might have got away with it completely had Rose not drawn everyone’s attention to the situation during morning break.

‘Dolly tells me there’s been a rather unfortunate pudding placement,’ she laughed. ‘Give us a flash!’

I gave everyone a quick glimpse to get it over with.

‘Very eye-catching,’ said Mr Matthews, who had just wandered in and turned rather pink.