She heard the connecting door open and peered through the blooms to see a pair of pink-socked feet which she guessed belonged to Daisy.

‘Wow, did someone die?’ Daisy asked.

‘These are from Sam and Alex’s parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbours and anyone else in the town that heard about last night’s little adventure. It doesn’t help that Pippa, the boys’ mum, is the Mayor of White Cliff Bay. There’s a certain amount of glory that comes from saving the Mayor’s kids.’

‘In that case, surely you should get the Victoria Cross or some other kind of medal.’

Penny laughed. ‘I have better than that: there’s five cakes in the fridge and four bottles of wine. Would you like a slice of cake?’

‘Oh yes, if there’s some going spare.’ Daisy sat down opposite Penny and cleared a small space so she could see her through the flowers. Penny stood up to get some cake. ‘Did they come round then, Sam and Alex’s parents?’

‘Yeah, I’d just got back from walking Bernard and they were here waiting for me, there’s been a steady stream of deliveries ever since.’

‘What did they say? We saw who I presume was the boys’ dad running out of a café when it all kicked off. What kind of parents would leave their kids to play outside on the street while they go and have a cup of tea in the café? Alex couldn’t have been older than eight or nine and Sam looked about five. It’s neglectful.’

Penny put the chocolate cake on a plate and cut two slices. ‘Pippa is pregnant and she nearly passed out while they were watching the fire breather. Mike rushed her into the café and told the boys to stay where they were for a second. He was only gone for two minutes.’

‘They shouldn’t have been left at all.’

Penny smiled at the outrage of someone who had never had the responsibility of looking after a child twenty-four hours a day.

‘You can’t watch them every second of the day, and even when you do watch them, accidents still happen. Mike apparently asked Jade to watch them for a few minutes while he took care of Pippa.’

‘What? That’s even worse than leaving them on their own.’

‘Well yes, she was just the nearest person there at the time.’

‘So did Jade just wander off and leave them?’

‘Mike doesn’t know, there was no sign of her at all when he came back out. They were both very apologetic and thankful. I don’t think we should judge them too harshly.’

Penny passed Daisy her cake and sat down to eat her own. Daisy took a big bite and moaned with pleasure. ‘Well, if they bring cakes like this round, I guess not. Dad loves chocolate cake so if you want to find a way to his heart, definitely ply him with lots of this.’

Penny scooped a bit of chocolate icing up from the plate, deliberately not looking at Daisy. She got the sense that Daisy didn’t want her to date Henry, though she wasn’t sure why.

‘I know he stayed the night last night.’

‘Nothing happened,’ Penny said, awkwardly. Apart from the best kiss she’d ever had. ‘I was just a little upset.’

‘What about?’

Penny smiled at her brazen confidence. ‘The pub is owned by my ex-boyfriend’s parents, it just brought back some memories. Do you want to carry on with your snowflake?’

Daisy didn’t notice the subject change, but her eyes lit up at the prospect of carving again.

‘I have a competition tonight, you’re welcome to come with me if you want to. You can meet some of the other carvers too. I’d like to say they are a friendly bunch but some of them are a little weird, but it should be fun. Some of them have very different techniques to me and I can talk you through some of them when we see them.’

‘I’d love that, I’m sure Dad won’t mind.’

‘Brilliant. Oh, and Josh will be there too.’

Daisy’s face split into a grin. ‘He’s lovely. We chatted a little bit while we were waiting for you yesterday. Does he work for you?’

‘He’s my assistant and mainly my muscles. The ice sculptures are very heavy and you need two people to lift them and move them. He comes up here two or three times a week to help to take the ice blocks out of the machines and helps me transport all my sculptures to events. I put an advert in the local paper for a big, strong man and he applied. I got the piss taken out of me for months afterwards. He’s very quiet, very sweet. He’s only seventeen. I’m sure you’ll get on with him.’

‘It would certainly be nice to make some friends round here,’ Daisy said, a mischievous glint in her eyes that Penny didn’t like.

‘Well, let’s get changed and then we can carve for a bit before tonight’s competition.’

Henry was definitely not going to thank her for setting his daughter up with a tattooed, muscular seventeen year old. Nothing was ever simple.

Henry stood on the warehouse floor of the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company. He looked around at the other workers and at the natural light flooding through the windows that sent ribbons of gold over the dark wood. He was going to enjoy working here. He was going to get to work with his hands every day, nurturing and perfecting beautiful pieces of handmade furniture. He was going to learn new processes and skills too and that was always something he was keen to do. White Cliff Bay Furniture Company was one of the biggest names in the world for handmade pieces and he was going to be a part of that.

He had met several members of the team he would be working with after Christmas when he started properly. They all seemed happy, cheerful people, singing and chatting and laughing while they worked. He knew he was going to love working with them.

He was waiting for Daniel, his line manager, to come back with some paperwork for him to sign when he heard the click-clack of heels across the hard floor. As all the women who worked on the factory floor wore steel toecapped boots, he turned to look at the foreign sound.

It was the fiery red hair he saw first, cascading in long curls down one side of her face. In a black trouser suit and sky high red heels, she looked like a force to be reckoned with. She was beautiful, there was no denying that, but there was a cold arrogance that marred her features. She didn’t look at anyone as she passed, almost as if they weren’t good enough to be looked at.

She was walking straight towards him.

‘Clara Stratton, CEO.’ She offered out a hand, clearly hoping he would be impressed with that title. He wasn’t, he’d already met who he considered to be the real CEO, Edward, who had stopped to talk to almost every person on the factory floor earlier. He shook her hand anyway, noting her eyes were as cold as ice, a direct contrast to her fiery hair.

‘Henry Travis, I’m starting work here after Christmas.’

This news clearly surprised her; she obviously had no idea about new staff, whereas Edward had recognised him from the interviews and made a point of coming and chatting with him for a good half hour when he saw him earlier.

‘Oh, that’s a pleasant bit of good news. It’s nice to have a bit of eye candy to look at every day at work.’

Henry refrained from letting his jaw drop. Surely if it had been Edward chatting to a new female employee like that, she could have slapped a sexual harassment suit on him faster than he could blink. But Henry would be nice to her, he had to. He couldn’t do anything to risk his job here before he had even started. He forced a smile onto his face.

‘I think you’ll be very happy here. I can help you settle in if you like. We should go out for dinner one night and we can talk about the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company, the expectations we have for you.’

‘Well, I think Edward and Daniel, my line manager, have explained that very clearly. I know how important the reputation of this company is and I’m delighted to be offered a place here based on my skills and experience.’

He hoped that would be the end of it.