Hard work I can manage. Emotional breakdowns and deeply personal outbursts I was not equipped to handle.

I dread to think what Nora Sharp would have made of it all. To my utter relief, for reasons I might begin to untangle once I’d had a decent night’s sleep and a glass of wine, the guests had seemed to love it – Simon even commented on how the décor in the bedrooms and the decrepit bathrooms had been the perfect metaphor for his crumbling, neglected real self.

Even better, the ridiculously large tip meant I could pay my team. Becky refused it at first, until we agreed that she’d spend it on a secret Old Side, New Side and No Side night out, somewhere in Nottingham where no one would spot us.

‘That was the most fun I’ve had in ages,’ Becky said, opening the sole remaining bottle of Prosecco.

‘That’s what you call it?’ Daniel asked, who had joined us for a late dinner of leftovers.

‘Compared to farting on about pharmaceuticals to people who mostly just want you to go away and let them get on with saving lives, it was fantastic!’

‘Fun or not, it was a bloomin’ success!’ Alice said. ‘Two thousand pounds each for that!’

‘Charlie would have absolutely loved it,’ I added. ‘Seeing her dream come to life, even if it was completely last minute, chuck-it-all-together and hope for the best…’ I had to stop talking and close my eyes.

‘To Charlie,’ Becky said, holding her glass up.

‘To Charlie.’ We all chinked our glasses in a toast, and for a brief moment it felt as though she was almost sitting here beside us.

‘So, when’s the next one?’ Becky asked, after following our reflective pause with a long drink.

‘Um, never?’ I said, my eyes on Daniel.

He looked at me steadily across the table. ‘Giving up on your dream so quickly? On Charlie’s dream? Is that what your vision pot says?’

‘You would really be up for doing it again?’

Daniel thought about this. When he was thinking a crease appeared between his eyebrows that a stupid, self-sabotaging part of me wanted to stroke until it softened away.

‘With proper planning, some reconfiguration of the farmhouse, sensible activities that people actually want to do… I don’t think anything’s happened in the past two days to make me change my mind.’ The hint of a smile creased at the corners of his mouth. ‘You sort of blew me away, to be honest.’

A flush of bashful pleasure cascaded up my neck and face like a scarlet tidal wave. Becky waggled her eyebrows at me.

‘All three of you did. You were brilliant. We couldn’t have done it without you.’

Ah, right. Of course. All of us blew him away.

‘What d’you mean, “we”?’ Alice asked, tossing her hair over one shoulder. ‘I think your contribution consisted of grumbling, hiding in your study and eating the last of the honey bread.’

On that note, we called it a night.