Dolores’ eyes widened. ‘All off the back of performing at The Lakehouse? Wow!’ She handed Ella a hot mug of tea. ‘That’ll warm you up.’

‘You are an icon, and you are going down in history! Oh, and we’ve had one more confirmation, Charlie Love. He was in your book, with a huge heart. Roman joked that’s because his surname is Love, but we don’t know if he is a singer or manager.’ Ella looked up towards Dolores, whose face had suddenly paled. She staggered to a chair, then steadied herself as she sat down. ‘Charlie is coming? Are you sure?’ Both her hands were on her heart and tears began to roll down Dolores’ cheeks.

‘Dolores, what is it?’ Ella had no clue if they were happy or sad tears. Feeling mortified that she’d made Dolores cry, she asked, ‘Is it something I’ve done? Have I upset you?’ Ella wasn’t sure what to think. ‘I didn’t mean to…’

Dolores shook her head and reached across and cupped both of Ella’s hands in hers. ‘You haven’t upset me, and these are happy tears. I just never, ever thought I would see Charlie again in this lifetime.’ Dolores patted Ella’s hand. ‘You see…’ Dolores took in a huge breath. ‘Charlie was my one true love but we could never be together. We’ve written to each other for over sixty years.’ Dolores didn’t elaborate further. Lost in her memories, she sat back in her chair and dabbed her cheeks with a tissue.

‘Thank you,’ she said, and Ella knew Dolores meant it from the bottom of her heart.

Chapter Thirteen

‘A couple of cheese and onion pasties and chocolate flapjacks to keep us going, courtesy of Rona,’ Roman waltzed through the doorway and held up a carrier bag full of goodies before spilling them out on to the coffee table. ‘There’s enough Haribos to sink the Titanic and keep our sugar levels up. We have a busy few hours ahead of us.’

Ella noticed his mood was upbeat and she hoped it was because his meeting with Megan had gone well and not because he was trying to cover up a bad morning.

‘How did your interview go? I didn’t manage to catch it.’

‘Never mind that, how was your meeting? That is a little more important than my five minutes of fame.’ Ella gestured for Roman to sit down. ‘You don’t have to go into details; I just want to make sure you’re both okay.’