I was crushingly disappointed to have my plans scuppered and I felt incredibly guilty for feeling it. The man I was going to be spending the rest of my life with had just undertaken an extraordinarily long journey to pay me a surprise visit and I was smarting over missing out on serving some teas in the town hall.

‘I’m still amazed that you’re even here.’ I said, trying to inject some enthusiasm into my voice. ‘I thought you were staying in Abu Dhabi for at least another week.’

‘That was the original idea,’ he said, heading towards the stairs, ‘but there’s been a bit of a change of plan.’

‘Right,’ I said, ‘I see. Well it really is lovely to see you.’

I hoped that didn’t sound like an afterthought.

‘Well, that’s a relief,’ he smiled, ‘for a second when you answered the door, I thought you were going to close it again. Now, I’m just going to freshen up, so why don’t you make us some coffee, the good stuff I sent, and then I’ll tell you what’s going on?’

‘All right,’ I smiled back, watching him awkwardly negotiate the narrow stairs and thinking how he didn’t fit into the fabric of the place at all. Beamish on the other hand was double his width and yet moved freely within the confines of the cottage.

I had just finished filling the cafetière when I heard, rather than saw, Jonathan coming back down.

‘Jesus,’ he swore as his head made crunching contact with the beam at the bottom of the stairs. ‘God, I hate this place.’

I didn’t comment.

‘I don’t know how you’ve managed to stay here,’ he groaned, rubbing at the vivid red mark across his forehead. ‘You’re almost as tall as I am. How the hell have you coped? It’s so fucking cramped.’

I winced at his choice of word, remembering I had used it myself when I first arrived, before Beamish corrected me. However, I refused to feel offended by Jonathan’s mean-spirited comment because in the past I had bumped my head plenty of times in the same spot, so I knew exactly how much it hurt.

‘I’ve learned to duck,’ I told him, setting the coffee down at the table.

‘I take it Dolly isn’t here?’ he said as I set out two cups.

‘No, she left early for town,’ I sighed. ‘There’s lots happening here today.’

‘You’re not wrong,’ he tutted. ‘My stupid satnav took me around the market square and it was full of shouting yokels, dragging trees and bundles of holly about. The place was heaving. It really is a little bit country around here, isn’t it?’

‘That’s because it is the country.’

He gave me a look, but didn’t answer back.