I cast a nervous look at the woman who’d spoken to him, who I assumed was his wife. She watched me with a wry smile on her face and tipped her glass back and forth between two fingers like a pendulum. I could still feel his eyes on me and imagined walking up to him and kissing him in front of them all, their mouths agog, eyes wide with shock.

‘Desirable?’ she drawled. ‘She has potential, perhaps.’ She turned her back to me. ‘But too plain for my tastes and she needs a haircut.’

The woman’s words, her dismissive tone, skewered me and any delight I’d felt from the man’s attention evaporated, leaving me feeling exposed amongst them.

‘Play nicely, Jilly,’ said Max. ‘Tamsyn’s a friend of the family.’

I have never been as grateful to anybody as I was to Max right then.

I looked at him and smiled and when he smiled back my heart sang. I noticed then how kind his eyes were, how the creases at their edges made them warmer and more welcoming than I’d realised. He turned away and walked over to top up the Barbie doll’s glass. I picked up two empty bottles and hurried back to the kitchen before anybody else could speak to me.

I was arranging more carrots on the plate when someone entered the kitchen. It was Max. He went over to the fridge and retrieved another bottle of champagne, which he opened. The cork popped loudly and he discarded it on the worktop. He poured a glass then held it out to me, gesturing for me to take it.

I hesitated, checking over my shoulder.

‘Have some, for God’s sake, you deserve it.’

I took the glass and put it to my lips. As the champagne fizzed on my tongue he reached out and touched my arm and rubbed it in a fatherly way.

‘I want to apologise for Freddie. The man’s a fool who thinks he’s a hit with the ladies.’ I grimaced and Max laughed which made me smile. ‘Exactly! He’s the village idiot so pay no attention. And his wife? An absolute pain.’

Max pushed himself off the counter and grabbed the bottle of champagne. ‘He also knows nothing about art. Your hair is pure Titian and not a bit Lautrec.’ Then he smiled. ‘And don’t you ever cut it. It’s glorious.’

‘We were wondering where you’d got to, Max.’

I snapped my head around to see Eleanor at the door. I hastily went back to rearranging the carrots, head down, eyes fixed on the plate, heart thumping against my ribcage.

‘I came in to get another bottle, darling. We seem to be getting through the stuff like water in a drought.’

‘Tamsyn, there are people out there who are desperate for a quail egg. Take the tray out please.’