‘I’ve done something like it.’ She cut up a couple of the melt-in-your-mouth sautéed potatoes. ‘It was for a women’s group and it wasn’t a Christmas scene but the process was much as you describe.’ The scene had been a pretty park with lots of women and kids relaxing in the sunshine, eating ice cream or playing ball. Eventually, it had gone up on a wall of one of Fliss’s refuges as a positive reinforcement of what family life could and should be. ‘Sure. Sounds fun.’

He made a big show of clapping her heartily on the shoulder. ‘You’re a good woman. We need to have it ready by December 17th, the same day we have to prepare the village hall. The fair is the 18th and 19th, when the school holidays have just started and everyone’s in the Christmas spirit.’

‘So we’ve got just over three weeks? Where’s the painting going to take place? Surely not at The Angel? It’ll get messy with that number of people and paintbrushes.’

His eyes danced. ‘Can you imagine Carola’s face? No, I have a workshop at the back of the cottage. I can shove aside my gourd stuff and we can work there.’ They finished their meal, tossing around ideas for what could go into the Christmas scene.

Tess popped over to their table to say bye, buttoning up a patchwork coat at the same time as diving into the discussion. ‘Could I have a corner of the foreground for a Santa and sleigh, sort of whooshing into the picture like this?’ She drew an imaginary piece of board in the air and ‘whooshed’ with her hands.

Laurel never collaborated on her own paintings but loved the occasional chance for a fun community project. ‘Absolutely. We’ll have the sun over there—’ she drew an imaginary circle with an imaginary pen on the top left on Tess’s imaginary board ‘—so everyone knows where the light’s coming from. I was thinking maybe mountains coming down to a lake, with ice skaters and chalets. That’ll leave you the bottom-right corner.’

‘Fantastic.’ Tess gave them each a hug before hurrying home.

It was nice to be friendly enough with someone in Middledip to hug – other than Rea and Daisy, that was – and it gave Laurel a tiny warm feeling. Though she’d been a reluctant returnee, occasionally Middledip felt like home again.