My stomach did a kind of somersault and ended up in my throat. Had she just let me in to tell me off for bad hat behaviour? I stayed still for a moment, but I noticed everyone was still smiling, so I felt very confused. Daniel made a shooing motion with his hand towards my bedroom, so I ran to the wardrobe to see what was what. Ruthy jumped out of Mum and Dad’s bed and chased me in. She stood near the wardrobe door sort of shivering with excitement. This was proving to be a most bewildering morning.

I opened the door tentatively and on the bottom of it was a brown cardboard box. It was quite a big box and it was moving. I knelt down and pulled it out onto the carpet. Ruthy was looming over me, and I noticed that Mum, Dad and Daniel were all standing at the door. I looked up at Dad for reassurance, and he smiled and nodded for me to keep going.

When I opened the box, I gasped. There at the bottom was a tiny black puppy, squirming all over the place. I put my hand in to stroke it and it licked me on the fingers. I lifted it out. It was the most beautiful puppy I’d ever seen, with a shiny coat and big paws and floppy ears. It was like the puppy I imagined I’d have when I was a girl knight in Caramel Castle with my baby Arabella and my guinea pig called Thruppence. I turned to look at everyone grinning at me. I didn’t know what to say.

Dad and Mum took a seat on the end of my bed, and Daniel leaned on the door lintel.

‘She’s the most beautiful dog I’ve ever seen. I love her.’ The puppy was wriggling in my arms trying to get away, but I was possibly never going to let her go. ‘Thank you so much, Dad. This is the best present ever.’

‘It’s not me you have to thank. This is your mother’s doing, Dorcas. She rang the breeder and she chose this one for you.’

I looked at Mum with amazement. I needed to check her face to see if this could possibly be true. I handed my puppy to Ruthy and I stood up and walked towards Mum. She didn’t reach out for me, but she didn’t push me away either, which seemed like a very good thing.

‘This is my present to you, Dorcas, to say I’m sorry because …’ But I didn’t let her finish. I did something I wasn’t expecting to do. I put my hand over her mouth to stop her saying more words. We stood looking at each other for a moment, and then she pulled me close to her. I could smell her rose soap and her skin all warm from bed, and it was an even better smell than my new puppy. After a moment she pulled back and looked at me with something more like her usual Mum face.