‘It’s the day of the Christmas tree auction,’ I explained, trying to curb my annoyance. ‘It’s a charity fundraising event and Dolly is helping out.’

‘She’s certainly a fan of the season, isn’t she?’ he said, looking about him, ‘and that tat on the front lawn—’

I flinched again.

‘Don’t you like the decorations?’ I interrupted. ‘I helped her put them up.’

‘You?’ Jonathan burst out laughing. ‘My tasteful Hattie was responsible for this tacky tinsel fest.’

I poured the coffee into the cups before I succumbed to the urge to pour it over his head. No wonder Dolly and Beamish had been so affronted by some of my comments when I first arrived in town. I had moaned about both the cottage and the decorations and now, hearing my own words echoed back to me, I could appreciate exactly how rude I had been.

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I was. I rather like it all actually.’

‘Good god,’ Jonathan spluttered. ‘I knew this so-called holiday was going to be a disaster.’

‘And you still think that, do you?’ I asked peevishly.

I really wanted to feel pleased to see him, but he just kept rubbing me up the wrong way. My brief time back in Wynbridge had peeled off some of the pretentious layers which matched me to my other half and it was going to take me a little while to reattach them.

‘Oh, come on, Hattie,’ Jonathan laughed. ‘You only have to look in the mirror. Staying here with Dolly was one thing, but getting roped into working at the school well, that’s clearly taken it out of you. This is exactly the reason why I don’t want us to have kids. If you look like this after a few days of looking after other people’s, can you imagine the state you’d be in if we had our own?’

‘I see.’

‘You can understand why I want it to always be just the two of us, can’t you?’ He said, reaching for my hand and stroking the back of it. ‘Hattie and Jonathan against the world, that’s always been the plan, hasn’t it?’

Had it? I knew it had been his, but had it really been mine too? Looking at him, sitting there, in his expensive clothes and with his manicured hands and groomed hair, I wondered if I had simply been caught up first with the hotel changes and then in his world which matched them. Had I just gone along with his so-called plan because I had been so in awe of him?