He sounded almost impatient. Perhaps Dolly wasn’t the only one who needed an early night.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘well, thanks again.’

‘No need to thank me,’ he sniffed. ‘A trip to the Cherry Tree Café isn’t exactly a hardship.’

‘Fair enough.’

I really wasn’t sure how to read him. I’d never seen him without a ready smile on his lips and a warm remark to accompany it.

‘It won’t be a very early drop off though,’ he said gruffly. ‘I haven’t got to go to bed tonight worrying about that blasted boiler, so I think I deserve to get up when I wake up, rather than when my alarm dictates, don’t you?’

‘Absolutely,’ I agreed, pointing at Dolly who was now yawning again, ‘and you aren’t the only one.’

*

In spite of the very grown-up things that had happened over the last few days, waking up in the cottage on the first day of the Christmas holidays, I felt about ten years old. Dolly and I had a great day planned – baking at home, followed by tea in town and finishing with the Santa parade and the last opportunity to indulge in some late-night shopping. And I was still hoping there would also be time to squeeze in a visit to the Winter Wonderland before the Wynthorpe clan closed their doors at the end of the weekend.

I couldn’t help thinking that the prospect of it all felt almost as exciting as the arrangements I had made for the previous weekend. I only hoped Jonathan didn’t have plans to arrive and scupper these too.

For someone who had decided to end her long-term relationship I was hardly mourning its death. If anything, I felt better than I had in ages. It was as if Jonathan had been slowly poisoning me, then Dolly had rescued me and provided the antidote to draw him out. Her remedy, combined with my contrasting friendship with Beamish, Mum’s revelations and Jonathan’s show of aggression had completely vindicated my decision to break it all off and there was no way I was going to let him tie me up in knots and have me thinking what he’d done was my fault. I may have been facing the new year with no job and no roof over my head but, in the exciting build-up to Christmas, they felt like minor details.

All I had to do now was work out how to tell Jonathan that our relationship was over, but even that didn’t feel quite such a daunting prospect with him so far away, and I certainly wasn’t going to let thoughts of it ruin mine and Dolly’s plans.

I could hear my friend moving about in the kitchen and threw back the covers, much to Tiddles disgust, and went down to join her.