‘I wish I could stay,’ he told us. ‘But it’s a big match today and the coach has insisted we’ve all got to turn up early. Not that I am that early now.’

I couldn’t think of anything worse than running up and down an almost frozen expanse of grass in shorts and getting the stuffing knocked out of me, but I wouldn’t have minded cheering from the sidelines if I was well wrapped up. These rugby types were made of stern stuff.

‘Well you be careful,’ said Dolly. ‘You’re only just getting over that last knock.’

‘It was touch and go whether I’d be allowed to play at all,’ he said, rubbing his eye and the bruises which were now more yellow than black, ‘but as I didn’t get knocked out, the doc has given me the all-clear.’

‘Don’t go breaking anything,’ I said. ‘We’ll need your support on the rink tonight. I don’t know about Dolly but I’ve never quite mastered the art of standing on ice, let alone skating on it.’

One of Dolly’s Wish List additions had been to go ice skating, so Beamish was driving us over to a rink in Peterborough after his match. I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

‘I hope you aren’t really expecting me to skate, Dolly?’ he said imploringly. ‘I’m no better than Hattie.’

‘You’ll soon get the hang of it,’ she said, with a wave of her hand, ‘it’s like riding a bike. You never forget.’

‘But what if you never grasped it in the first place,’ I began, but quickly stopped.

The look on Dolly’s face told me protesting was pointless. I was going to have to face my fear of losing my fingers and if I was going down, then I was taking Beamish with me.

‘Oh, we’ll be all right,’ I said, announcing my change of heart to Beamish, who was looking stricken. ‘How hard can it be?’

‘That’s the spirit,’ Dolly chuckled.

Once he had gone, Dolly and I began to look through the boxes of decorations and work out if she had enough to dress the tree which was somewhat larger than what she was usually used to.

‘I thought Tiddles might have sprung into action and pulled it down by now,’ I said, beadily eyeing the cat who was fast asleep next to the fire even though it wasn’t lit yet. ‘I hope she isn’t waiting until we’ve finished making it look beautiful.’

‘I don’t think we need to worry,’ said Dolly, handing me a box full of old-fashioned glass baubles. ‘She’s got about as much go in her as I have these days.’