The fashion stylist from Goddess, Angelica, had brought with her an array of wispy skirts, shirts, trousers, and tops in the flimsiest gauze and silk, together with long padded coats for the models to shrug on in between photos to stop their teeth chattering. As agreed, we had opted for shades to complement the new Avanti make-up range, so the clothes (such as they were) were all vanillas, steels, ghost grey, and marshmallow colours.

Ebony had slicked each of the three models’ hair back from their chiselled faces, so that their mermaid shiny skin did all the talking.

I took a long, charged mouthful of my takeaway coffee. Thank goodness Athena had agreed to run with my idea. I had sold it to her, concentrating on the wild garden/statue vibe, stressing that spooky stories weren’t just popular at Halloween, but at Christmas too (think Scrooge) and that it would be a great fit for our festive issue.

I had taken a series of pictures of the gardens on my phone to show her and she had marvelled at the atmosphere of it all.

Now, I was hovering about at 8am on this Monday morning, with the determined frost still glinting on the grass and a raft of sleepless nights worrying about it all still taking their toll on me.

The three models of the moment – Esther Drew, Carina Salazar, and the only male model out of the three, who was known simply as Dante – had been preened and glossed and were strutting backwards and forwards, mumbling to Baz, the photographer.

Like everyone else, I’d seen their faces gracing all the magazines, but having them up close now, in the middle of a sprawling garden early in the morning, was a strange experience. It was also an enlightening one.

Esther Drew never smiled. From what I could see, she didn’t possess great teeth, but had a waterfall of dark-blonde hair and legs like a gazelle.

Dante was forever flexing his six-pack under his shirt and reminded me of a show pony. Carina Salazar was a dusky beauty who liked to sit and read self-improvement books between shots.

Baz asked Esther to drape herself around one of the Merry Wood statues. “Now tilt one of your cheese-grater cheeks against the statue, darling. That’s it. Look at me. You’re killing it! Killing it!”

I glanced up the lawn towards Merry Wood. It was as if the house were watching all the comings and goings, from those unoccupied still rooms of hers.

I promised Lily that the garden would be left how we found it. I had expected her to turn up on some pretext, to make sure no one was taking liberties, but there had been no sign of her so far.

Maybe she did trust me after all.

I hoped she did.