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Lucie crossed everything that he wouldn’t take the opportunity to question Frances again. She entered the kitchen, where Mandy was waiting for her with a breathless energy.

“Did you tell your dad to get me a necklace?” Mandy whispered into the stillness of the room.

Lucie shook her head. “No. Don’t you like it?”

“Of course I do. I adore it. I’m just surprised he was so...”

“Thoughtful?” Lucie joked.

“Yeah,” Mandy said, her expression softening for a moment before she caught herself. “No, I mean, he’s always thoughtful, but he’s never bought me anything like that before. We normally give each other more practical things.”

“Like a penknife?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, it wasn’t my idea. He never mentioned it to me.”

Mandy grinned like a lovesick teenager. “Okay. Well, let’s get lunch served. Can you take the turkey through for your dad to carve? I’ve put you opposite Frances. You can make eyes at each other or play footsie under the table.”

“Oh, very funny,” Lucie said, lifting the turkey as Mandy extracted a tray of roast potatoes from the oven. Though she liked the sound of it.

Lucie watched her dad at the end of the table, carving the turkey as everyone dug into bowls of roasted vegetables and then smothered everything in gravy and cranberry sauce. It was like old times, having a full table again. Gran’s chair had been left empty, like it had every year, as if they were waiting for her to return.

She looked away, reaching for her cracker. With it being obligatory in her family to wear the stupid hats while they ate, she rallied everyone to start pulling. Rose and Frances pulled theirs together, as did her dad and Mandy, so Lucie offered hers across the table to Frances. Their eyes met briefly as she reached for the other end, and after a moment’s tussle, between them, the cracker gave way with a bang.

As hats were donned, Lucie looked across at Frances, noting how incredibly cute she looked in hers and how she was the only one of them wearing it straight. With drinks poured, glasses chinked, and a loud ‘cheers’ from everyone, they tucked in.

After lunch and another bottle of champagne, Lucie came down from the bathroom to find Mandy and Frances absent. Her dad and Rose were absorbed in the 1938 black-and-white version of A Christmas Carol, so hearing low voices coming from the kitchen, she approached the half open door.

“How is your mum getting on with Lucie?”

Lucie’s ears pricked at her name, and she paused by the door, straining to hear.

“Great. She’s a godsend. Having a few hours a day without constantly worrying is doing wonders for my stress levels. Mum seems more settled, and she’s sleeping much better, which means I am too.”

“When Lucie was caring for her gran, I’d sleep here occasionally just so she could decompress and get some sleep over at the pub.”

“I worry we’ll get too used to it.”

“Mmm. We’ll all miss her when she leaves again. Probably more than she realises.” Mandy’s voice lowered as she finished her thought. “Her dad especially.”

Lucie felt something tighten in her stomach.

“She’s always found her way to what’s important to her,” Mandy’s voice continued gently. “We have to let her fly. Pete and I just want her to be happy. Whatever she’s doing, wherever she is.”

The words lodged somewhere behind Lucie’s ribs as a sudden sting caught in her eyes. She blinked and swallowed, willing herself to be steady before anyone noticed her hovering there. The idea that she had been missed lifted her; the reminder that she would need to leave again deflated her. Her life needed restarting, and that couldn’t be done in Winterbourne.

“I’ll certainly miss her very much if she leaves,” Frances said.

Her words made Lucie’s stomach somersault. Suddenly, standing on the other side of the door felt unbearably far away and she found herself crossing the threshold, making Frances and Mandy jump.

“Don’t mind me,” she said. “I just came to see if you needed any help.”

“I think we’re all done,” Mandy concluded. “I’ll go and see if there are any stragglers before I put the dishwasher on.”

Lucie and Frances stood in silence until the kitchen door closed behind Mandy.

“Thank you for buying Mum the snow globe bauble,” Frances said. “I was going to buy her one but completely forgot, and by the time I remembered, the shop had sold out.”