We all laughed and I walked with them back to their car, hugging each tightly in turn before they climbed in. The car was one I hadn’t seen before and I wondered how many other things had changed at home that I didn’t know about. Not that it really mattered. I would be visiting them soon enough and besides, all I really cared about was that I had them back. The smiles on their faces told me they felt exactly the same.

‘Look after yourself, my darling,’ said Dad, once he had turned the engine over.

‘I’ll ring you tomorrow,’ said Mum, leaning over the seats. ‘And come when you can,’ she added, ‘but only if you can leave Dolly. I know things aren’t going to be easy for you, but we’re here, love. If you need anything you only have to ask.’

‘And we can always come to you,’ said Dad. ‘Just pick up the phone if you need us. Merry Christmas, Hattie.’

‘Yes,’ nodded Mum. ‘Merry Christmas.’

‘Having you here has been the best present ever,’ I choked as Dad put the car into gear.

I swallowed hard, willing myself not to cry until they had gone.

‘Dolly said that she thought it might be,’ said Mum, her eyes now glistening with tears of her own. ‘She said it would be a wish come true.’

‘Now get inside,’ said Dad as he released the handbrake, ‘before you freeze.’

I waved until they were out of sight and then found that I didn’t want to cry. I bounded back up the path and into the cottage.

*

The Wynbridge midnight church service wasn’t quite the reverent step into Christmas day that I had been expecting. Dolly was tired but insisted that she wanted to go, if only to make up the numbers, but there was no need to have worried about empty pews. Every reveller in town it seemed had spilled out of The Mermaid at closing time and headed for the church to celebrate the dawning of the day we had all been waiting for. The carols were sung with gusto, the vicar was on fine form, happy to indulge the more inebriated members of the congregation, and the service sped by.

Stepping out of the church porch, my hand clasped in Dolly’s, was like stepping into a fairy tale. The snow was falling again, thicker now, and it was a safe bet that we were going to wake to a white Christmas. As far as I was concerned, it was the icing on the cake.

‘Things have turned out pretty well, haven’t they?’ said Dolly, her thoughts obviously travelling along the same tracks as mine.

Aside from her sad news they had, but I knew she wouldn’t want me to mention that now.