‘I thought you didn’t like it,’ commented Beamish, when he noticed my rapt expression.

‘You know I changed my mind,’ I reminded him, my face warming as I remembered how I had arrived with fixed ideas about style and carefully co-ordinated decorations.

‘You’ve changed your mind about a lot of things in the last few weeks, haven’t you?’ he said, passing me the yule-log as he opened the gate.

‘That I have,’ I agreed, thinking not only of Jonathan, but also the many things Dolly and I had added and ticked off the Wish List and which had now taken their rightful place in my festive preparations again.

Dolly was opening the door before we were halfway up the path and beckoning for us to hurry up, lest all the heat from the well-stoked fire escaped. She was thrilled with the yule-log and insisted I set it to the side of the basket so there was no danger of it getting muddled with the others and burned before she was ready to release its powers. Whatever that meant. I still wasn’t sure I really understood the significance of it all, but I was delighted Dolly was so pleased to have her own yule-log nonetheless.

‘Now,’ she said, once the three of us were settled with tea and biscuits. ‘I need to talk to the pair of you.’

Beamish looked at me questioningly and I had to look away. I knew that what he was going to hear was going to shake his faith in the world every bit as much as it had mine when I first heard Dolly say it. It was going to take some time for me to come to terms with what was going to happen and I had no real idea how much time Dolly had left. No one did, not even her.

‘Thank you for your message, Hattie,’ she went on, pointing at her phone. ‘I appreciate you letting me know, but it’s not going to be enough.’

I couldn’t fathom what she meant. I had messaged to let her know that Beamish and I were friends again and I had thought she would be pleased, but apparently not.

‘However,’ she said, before I had a chance to question her, ‘we’ll get to that later.’

She returned her gaze to Beamish.

‘Beamish,’ she said, her tone softening as she sat back in her seat and prepared herself to say the words.

‘I think I’ll just freshen up,’ I said, tears springing to my eyes.

I couldn’t bear to hear her say it again.

‘There’s no need,’ she told me.

‘I’ll be back in a sec,’ I said, putting down my cup and saucer. ‘I just want to give you a minute.’