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‘Is it? Katie went white as a sheet when she saw him,’ Athene said tartly. She’d always been less madly in love with Ned than the rest of Katie’s family and friends.

‘I didn’t mean he should have,’ Jess shot back, looking hurt.

Katie dived in to pour oil on troubled waters. They’d barely got settled and the atmosphere was already tense.

‘It sounds romantic until it actually happens, but for now, can we please set Ned aside?’

‘I don’t think Ned has ever been set aside and that’s part of the problem,’ Athene said. Her phone pinged and she pulled it out of her pocket. Slowly she set her mug down on the worktop and stared at the screen, frowning deeply.

‘Everything OK?’ Katie asked.

Athene glanced up and rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah. Work. Of course.’

‘If you can, you should try to have a proper break,’ Katie said gently. ‘And I know that’s not easy when life has a way of following you when you try to get away from it.’

‘Doesn’t it just?’ Athene murmured and shoved the phone in her pocket. ‘I absolutely must get hold of a few people before they all bugger off to the seaside or the frozen north.’

‘A, you have no chance at this stage, and B, you’ve already buggered off to the frozen north, Athene,’ Jess said.

‘Yes, but … I’m not moaning, I like the north. My great-grandfather was from Newcastle and I’m rather fond of a Bakewell tart.’

Athene was only half joking.

Katie burst out laughing. ‘You need a life.’

‘I have a life.’ Athene’s smile seemed brittle. Maybe Katie had touched a nerve. She was a wonderful agent, tough when she needed to be and with a terrier reputation but so kind to Katie. Katie knew little about Athene’s personal life because there wasn’t much to know other than she had family in Lichfield, nephews and nieces, and lots of friends in London.

However, there had never, in the five years Katie had known her, been any sign of a love interest of any kind. Athene lived up to the workaholic publishing type perfectly. Too perfectly. Or maybe, Katie thought, Athene was very happy without any kind of romantic entanglement whatsoever – or had a secret and outrageous life Katie didn’t and shouldn’t know about.

‘Shall we take our drinks into the sitting room?’ Jess suggested. ‘There’s another amazing Christmas tree in there and Wanda brought a tin of mince pies.’

Katie smiled at Jess in gratitude. ‘Great idea. There’s a drawing room too but the sitting room is cosier.’

While Athene read the latest edition of The Bookseller on her phone, Katie carried the tin of mince pies, mugs and cafetière into the sitting room where Wanda was admiring the arrangements of greenery. Someone – not Arlo, she suspected – had hung swags of ivy and fir above the fireplace and placed vases of holly and gold-sprayed pine cones around the room.

Wanda could hardly meet Katie’s eye.

‘I love the scent of pine and fresh greenery,’ Katie said, hoping to start the conversation on a neutral note.

‘Have you seen the size of the tree?’ Jess said. ‘Almost as big as the one in the hall. Wish I had room for it in my flat.’

‘Don’t we all?’ Athene said, bringing in a tray with some Stollen bites. ‘Still, it’s probably way more fun when someone else has gone to the trouble of chopping it down and decorating it.’

‘I used to love choosing a tree with Ian and Tyrone,’ Wanda murmured, almost too quietly to be heard.

‘It’s such a shame he couldn’t get leave this year,’ Jess said kindly.

‘Where is Tyrone?’ Athene asked while Katie offered Wanda a Stollen bite.

‘He can’t say exactly, but somewhere in the South China Sea. He left at Halloween and won’t be back until Easter. I do miss him, even more so now I’m on my own.’

Katie handed the mug to Wanda with a sympathetic look. Despite her lingering frustration, Katie was still mindful that her aunt had suffered a double loss. Shortly after her uncle had died, her son had been posted on a six-month tour on his warship and was now on yet another one.

‘It must be so hard for you at this time of year,’ Katie said.

‘It is. I—’ Her eyes glistened with tears and she telegraphed a look to Katie that said, I’m sorry.

Katie patted her back. ‘Well, you’ve got us this year. It isn’t the same but …’