They joined the parade of guests making their way to the ballroom. Ned himself had been exiled from the hotel for the last two days, so he didn’t know what Elle had done with a lot of it. The ballroom couldn’t be anything too drastic, not in two days. He knew that the floor had been sanded and polished though. He wondered if that meant an opportunity for dancing.

He didn’t think he would ever forget the moment he first stepped into the ballroom that night. Whatever he had imagined, it had been nothing like this.

The walls were adorned with greenery and blooms. Wisteria crept up along the walls as though it had been growing there for years. Great urns were overflowing with flowers, and delicate berry boughs were strung from the high ceiling.

The whole effect was of a wild wonderland, as though they had walked into the ballroom a hundred years from now to find it being taken back, bit by bit, by nature. It was beautiful, he thought, like something from those stories of woodland nymphs and fairies that Anna used to read to the girls when they were younger.

There were gasps of awe and wonder all around. Elle had truly transformed the place. Ned knew, with his accurate eye, that she had managed to do it without making any major changes either. Behind the startling array of flora, the wallpaper was still faded and ripped. But it didn’t matter. It was perfect for this night.

The whole air was diffused with a pink glow, and Ned had thought that it was because of the emotion he himself was feeling lately, that everything seemed rose tinted.

But no, it was the chandelier. Elle had had it restrung with tiny pink crystals. She must have asked Pat from the jewellers to do it. It was magnificent. Each crystal shimmered in the air and made each person look radiant.

It was the kind of room in which special things could happen, Ned told himself. He teared up a little, thinking of how much Anna would have loved it. It was exactly the kind of thing she’d always pictured for this place, but because life got in the way, had sadly never managed to achieve.

When Rob entered the ballroom he thought he was seeing things. He couldn’t believe all that Elle had done. He could hear Hazel telling someone about how hard it had been to work to her vision. ‘In the end, she was right of course,’ Hazel was saying. ‘But it was bloody tough work!’

He immediately thought of Penny’s original vision for the place when they were discussing renovations a few weeks before, ‘Sparkle’. Elle had got it in one.