The girls rushed out of the back door, giggling, with Emma on their heels. They spotted the carrots straight away.

‘He’s been! He’s been!’ shouted Lucy gleefully, with Olivia alongside her grinning from ear to ear.

The first find was tucked behind a large plant pot on the patio. Emma had grouped the eggs in twos, so both girls picked one up. Then there was a bit more of a hunt in the garden borders, checking under shrubs and the like, and a hydrangea bush was found to be sheltering two more. They split up, and when Olivia found another duo under a short fir tree near the far fence, she called for her sister excitedly.

The last two proved more difficult. There was much foraging in the borders – good job they were in their wellies – and sighing and puffing, until Lucy stopped in the middle of the back lawn with her arms folded.

‘Maybe that’s it,’ she announced.

‘Let’s just keep trying a little longer,’ Emma suggested. She had just managed to surreptitiously move a half-chewed carrot to the base of the old apple tree, where the last pair of eggs were perched, just within sight and reach for a five-year-old, on the lower branches. There was also a note with them.

James and Chloe were standing outside with a cup of tea, watching the goings on. They gestured to Emma that a tea was ready for her too.

‘Don’t think we’ll be long,’ she shouted across to them, with a wink.

Emma wandered nearer the apple tree, seemingly looking around at floor level. Lucy caught her up and soon spotted the carrot lying at the tree’s base.

‘There, Auntie Emma – but where’s the eggs?’

‘It might be a clue,’ Emma hinted.

Olivia was on the case, looking around her, and then up. The foil glinted in the sunlight from its branch. She reached up on her tiptoes, her fingertips grasping an egg carefully. Lucy barged in, grabbing the last egg and the note.

‘Lucy, be patient,’ shouted James from the steps.

Lucy unfolded the note, to find a rabbit footprint and a short message.

‘Auntie Emma, can you read it, please?’

‘Okay. Dear Lucy and Olivia—’

‘Oohh, he knows our names!’

‘Dear Lucy and Olivia, Please now go to the garden shed where your Easter trail will end.’

Before Emma had even had the chance to say the word ‘end’, the girls had bolted off. Lucy managed to lift the latch on the shed, and they dived in.

All Emma could hear was, ‘Aww, that’s so cute!’ And ‘I love him!’

Then, the girls were out of the shed door shouting, ‘Mummy, Daddy, Auntie Emma, look! Look!’ They were clutching large moulded chocolate Easter rabbits, with matching yellow dotty bow ties, which Emma had lovingly crafted earlier in the week. James and Chloe hadn’t known about these.

‘Oh wow, they are fantastic,’ said Chloe.