‘I know,’ I said, ‘the time has flown by and so much has happened. I’m going to email Mum again and explain everything, including what’s going on with Dolly. I was hoping to travel up to see them but I can’t right now. I’m sure they’ll understand.’

‘I could stay here with Dolly while you’re gone,’ Beamish suggested.

‘No,’ I said, knowing I would only worry the whole time I was away. ‘It’s fine. There’s going to be plenty of time to see them now I’m not moving.’

‘Which leads me on to my next question,’ Beamish carried on, ‘what are you going to do now, Hattie? What are you going to do, after . . .?’

His words trailed off and I was happy not to finish the sentence for him.

‘I’m not sure,’ I said, ‘but for now, I just want to concentrate on giving Dolly the best ever Christmas and spending as much time with her as I can. I’ll think about my future when the times comes.’

‘That’s fair enough,’ he said, reaching for my hand again, ‘and if I were you, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I have a feeling that everything’s going to be all right.’

Once he had gone home and I had gone to bed, and in spite of his insistence that I shouldn’t, I did begin to fret. The first few blissful minutes in my lovely warm bed were filled with remembering the kisses we had shared, and thoughts of how lucky I was to have friends such as Dolly and Beamish in my life, but then the fear of losing Dolly and the uncertainty about my future came flooding back.

What was I going to do long-term? Was staying in Wynbridge really going to be an option for me when I had nowhere to live and no income? I was going to have to force myself to put it all out of my mind, because the last thing I wanted was to be worrying about all of that while I was looking after Dolly. I would just have to bide my time and see what came along. Perhaps Beamish was right, perhaps things would be all right.

*

Dolly was up before me the next morning and looking very smug when I went down to breakfast.

‘I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am for you both,’ she grinned, her cheeks positively glowing. ‘The pair of you are perfect for each other and I know I barely gave you a second to patch things up like I would under normal circumstances, but with the grim reaper circling, these aren’t normal circumstances, are they?’

I tutted and shook my head.