Page 29 of Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle

It’s probably bad form to laugh at kids, but it’s impossible not to laugh at the gravitas Rory’s giving this, even though he’s got a point on both fronts.

‘You’re right, Ror, although it does seem to have worked out for us on this occasion.’ Ollie’s laughing too as he meets my eyes and gives me a wink.

‘Awwwwww!’ Maisie clasps her pink-painted hands together.

‘How about A Christmas Carol? I’d only seen the Muppets version and Lu recommended I read the original book?’

‘And from there, we grew a friendship of talking classic literature and favourite film adaptations and when Ollie invited me to see his spectacular castle library, I was a goner. Head over heels, and not just because of the library.’

He leans back in his chair, beaming at me as he holds his hand out for a high-five, but he’s painting his pot reindeer-brown and I’m going red, and when I touch my hand to his, our colours of paint merge in an unholy mess, and his fingers curl around mine for an all-too-brief moment.

‘Does that meet your approval, Master Rory?’ Ollie lets go and sits forwards again.

‘Hmm. It’ll take some work, but at least it’s organic and there’s some truth in it.’

I love this kid. Organic. How does a ten-year-old even know the word in this context? ‘Thank you for how seriously you’re taking this.’

Rory clicks his tongue. ‘You’d get nowhere without us. Honestly, this effort is an embarrassment.’

Ollie nearly chokes as he tries to stop himself laughing again, but it’s no good, and neither of us can prevent it bursting out.

‘It’s all well and good finding it funny, but you’re the ones who are going to look stupid when you don’t know this stuff!’ Rory barks, looking fed up of having to deal with us naughty children. ‘Have you even kissed yet?’

‘We’re not going to kiss, it’s just pretend,’ Ollie assures him, but his eyes flick to me and focus briefly on my lips. He looks away again so quickly that I wonder if I imagined it.

‘What if there’s mistletoe?’

‘Lu’s in charge of decorating and she’s going to make sure there’s no mistletoe. Mistletoe doesn’t just come up and ambush people in the street, you know. If we don’t put it up, it won’t be there.’

‘You never know where there might be mistletoe,’ Rory says cryptically, like mistletoe is a constant threat lurking around every corner in the manner of spiders or creepy clowns.

‘What was your wedding like?’ Maisie asks. ‘Was it reeeeeally romantic?’

I glance at Ollie again. ‘It was small. Intimate. On the castle grounds. Hardly anyone came. Only your granny and grandad, and my family too, and both of you, of course, but you might’ve been too young to remember it.’

‘I was old enough to remember it and I’m going to tell everyone there was a big cake!’ Rory says. ‘But why are there no wedding photos?’

‘Because there’s never been a wedding, Rory!’ Ollie glues a red nose onto his plant pot.

‘I know that, but your bosses don’t,’ he replies like we really are the stupidest people he’s ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

‘Mummy and Daddy have wedding photos everywhere,’ Maisie adds. ‘And honeymoon photos too. Where did you go for your honeymoon?’

I catch Ollie’s eyes again. ‘Somewhere warm and sunny. No, wait, you kids would’ve been three and five when we got married, so maybe we didn’t have a honeymoon at all and that’s why there are no photos?’

‘Where are your parents, Auntie Lula?’

Being called Auntie Lula does something to my heart. It’s what Rocco calls me, and here, it makes me feel like I’m really Ollie’s girlfriend being introduced to his family for the first time, and it’s a surprisingly nice feeling. I like the fact that he’s been completely honest with the kids and got them involved in this too, like it’s a game we’re all playing together. Even this aspect of inventing our backstory with them is unintentionally genius on his part. ‘They live in Ipswich. They already have one grandchild from my sister, but my mum is always pestering me to give them more. They’d both absolutely love you two.’

‘And that works surprisingly well because one of my top excuses about why my wife can’t attend events is because she’s visiting her parents in England, and don’t forget that you two always go with her.’

‘Won’t you miss them for Christmas?’ Maisie asks me.

‘Of course I will, but we’ve got enough to keep us busy over Christmas and I’ll see them before the end of December anyway. How about you? Are you going to miss your parents?’

‘Noooooooo!’

‘Not at all!’ Rory says. ‘We’re going to video call them, and Uncle Ollie is going to let us stay up late and eat anything we want and watch alllllllll the TV, right? And he’s going to get us loads of presents!’