I turned around and found myself in the midst of a hug from a woman with thick dark curls and the prettiest green eyes.

‘Rose,’ I said, hugging her back. ‘How lovely to see you. How are you?’

Rose Gardner, was one of the teachers at the school where Dolly worked and I myself had worked with her too when I had volunteered. She was always brimming with bubbly charm, very much a glass half-full kind of woman.

‘I’m very well,’ she said, looking me up and down, ‘but not as well as you it seems. How fantastic do you look? But then with your height and slender frame, you always did put us little country dumplings to shame.’

‘I don’t think so,’ I said, feeling another blush blooming.

I had hated my height when I was growing up and sometimes still felt that it wore me rather than the other way around.

‘Dolly tells me you’re here for the holidays,’ said Rose, linking arms, which wasn’t easy given our height difference, before moving us away from the stall. ‘I’ll bring her back in a bit, Dolly!’ she called over her shoulder.

‘Take your time!’ Dolly called back.

I glanced over and saw she was already in the thick of things, handing out mince pies and gingerbread biscuits as if they were going out of fashion.

‘So,’ said Rose, once she had treated us both to a cup of fragrant mulled wine. ‘What are your plans? I know Dolly said you’re moving abroad in the new year, but what are you going to be doing while you’re here?’

‘Nothing in particular,’ I told her, blowing into my cup.

I wondered if Dolly had said that I was moving with Jonathan when she’d been telling everyone about my imminent move. They all knew my last visit to the town had been prompted by man trouble but I still didn’t know how Dolly had explained my swifter than planned departure. I would have to ask her about that.

‘I’m here for Dolly really,’ I went on. ‘I want to spend as much time with her as I can before I go.’

‘In that case,’ Rose rushed on, her eyes twinkling, ‘you should definitely sign up to volunteer at the school again.’

‘Oh . . .’ I said, shaking my head, all thoughts of Jonathan suddenly forgotten. ‘I don’t think . . .’

‘No, I mean it,’ she interrupted. ‘That way you could spend far more time with Dolly and I can guarantee that by the time you go, you’ll be feeling completely different about Christmas.’

She said that as if it was a good thing.