‘Everything ran like clockwork,’ said Wren, echoing what some of the others had been saying as I walked in. ‘Theo and I both made plenty of sales and the set-up in the hut worked really well.’

Theo would be joining us after he’d finished his few Friday gardening jobs and I already knew that he and Wren were planning to split their time between selling in the huts, producing more stock and in Theo’s case, keeping his other business running. They were certainly going to be busy.

Sue and Lilith were happy too. There had been plenty of room in their huts as they had one each. They were both planning to work onsite whenever possible, setting up tiny work stations so the customers could watch them create, but sadly the same couldn’t be said for Abbie.

‘I ended up having to stay behind the desk,’ she said, sounding a little glum, ‘because I was worried I’d squash someone with this wretched thing.’ The thump she gave her wheelchair was far from affectionate. ‘I might be able to work in there, because felting doesn’t take up much space, but I can’t really move around.’

‘We just need a re-jig,’ Noah said consolingly. ‘We’ll shift things about a bit this morning and reorganise the space. After all, that’s what last night was for, wasn’t it, Ned? To iron out any wrinkles.’

‘Exactly,’ Ned said, quickly backing Noah up. ‘And if you’re not happy with the set up by the end of today, then maybe we could ask Hope and Sophie to move into your hut and you and Noah could have their space in the barn instead. There’d be more room for you to manoeuvre in there, Abbie.’

I wasn’t sure that would work because the queue for food would clog up the doorways of everyone else’s huts but before I could point that out, Sue kindly stepped in.

‘Or you could take my hut, Abbie and I’ll move in with Noah,’ she kindly suggested. ‘Liza and I could do a super speedy repaint and sign adjustment, couldn’t we?’

‘Absolutely,’ I agreed. ‘That would be no problem at all and I’m sure Lilith would offer to switch to the barn if she were here, too.’

‘I really want us to stick together, Abs,’ said Noah, ‘but whatever works best for you will be fine, my lovely.’

Abbie looked much happier after that and when Nick and his wife, Edith, offered to take on the responsibility of keeping Santa’s sack stocked up with small, ethically produced gifts, Ned did too.