It was far lengthier than when we had first written it and ran to a full couple of pages, but most things were ticked off. Now, knowing about her illness, I could appreciate just what an effort it must have been for Dolly to glide around the ice rink and make the walk to see the geese. She’d never shown any sign, other than a little general tiredness, that anything was wrong, had she? Later I would trawl back over my time here, looking for clues I might have missed.

‘That wasn’t all about me, was it?’

‘No,’ said Dolly, with a wry smile, ‘there were actually a few things on there that I wanted to do for myself but convincing you that you should do them too ensured you got to enjoy them. It was a little underhand, but . . .’

‘No, it wasn’t,’ I smiled, thinking of the fun we’d had, especially putting up the decorations.

My amusement was tempered when I realised she had insisted they all went up because it the last time she was going to see them. Come to think of it, at one point, she’d even mentioned ‘last Christmas’ and then modified her words to make me believe she was talking about my last Christmas in the UK.

‘It was clever,’ I acknowledged.

Dolly smiled in agreement.

‘Had I known that you were ill, I’d have gone about everything with a completely different mindset, wouldn’t I?’ I said.

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you would and so would I. I was looking for unadulterated joy with no sympathetic undertones and I got it.’

‘I wish I could say the same,’ I told her.

‘What do you mean?’

‘My time on the ice rink,’ I reminded her, giving a little shudder as I remembered my fears and another as I recalled the feeling of Beamish’s strong hands grasping my waist. ‘You might have had the joy on that occasion Dolly, but I was looking for sympathy. That ice was cold and very hard!’

Dolly laughed at the memory.

‘But, Hattie,’ she said, the laughter fading as she reached for my hand, ‘please don’t convince yourself that I am simply ill, as you just said. I am dying. There is absolutely no doubt about that.’

‘Aren’t we all?’ I said, looking her in the eye and trying to sound stronger than I felt.

‘That we are,’ she sighed, ‘but some of us are going far sooner than others.’