‘I’m fine. X Factor is on in a bit and I said I’d Skype Melissa anyway and watch it with her. You go and enjoy yourselves.’

‘Just me and you then,’ Henry said, trying to keep the amusement off his face at his daughter’s meddling.

‘Well, give me a hand loading the van with the ice blocks I need for the ice carving workshop tomorrow and then I’ll get changed.’

Henry nodded and they walked into the freezer. He helped her load several small blocks that she had cut in preparation for the workshop onto a trolley and they wheeled it round to the van together.

‘Are you going to tell me what happened?’ Penny whispered just in case Daisy could hear them.

‘No, I’ll tell you in the car. I don’t want Daisy to hear this.’

They loaded the blocks onto the van, wrapping each piece in bubble wrap so they didn’t stick to the van or each other. Then Penny went to get changed.

She wanted something smart but not overly dressy for what was probably going to end up as a meal in a pub, so she just grabbed a nice jumper, threw on a little bit of make-up and brushed her hair into a plait. Henry had seen her first thing in the morning when her hair was everywhere, he’d seen her in her definitely not sexy pyjamas and in her usual jeans and hoodies and he still seemed to really like her.

She ran downstairs, they said their goodbyes to Daisy and got in the car.

‘So come on, out with it,’ Penny said as Henry drove down the bumpy driveway.

‘OK, but I don’t want you to think less of me. Part of me thinks it was a pretty shitty thing to do. Clara wasn’t taking no for an answer – the more I rejected her, the more of a challenge she saw me as. She told me to meet her in her office tonight or she’d make my life hell. So I agreed.’

Penny swallowed down the sudden fear that clutched at her throat. Had he agreed to sleep with her in order to get her off his back once and for all? No, he would never do that.

Henry glanced over. ‘I had no intention of ever meeting her. I wanted proof for when I told Edward just in case he didn’t believe me. I told him everything and Audrey, Clara’s assistant, backed up my story too. I told him where he could find her, that she was waiting for me, but he believed me without that. I feel bad that I set her up like that when I didn’t need to. Anyway Edward went to talk to her about it and found her in a very compromising position, half naked, sprawled across her desk from what I can gather. She must have been mortified.’

‘Don’t you feel sorry for her, don’t you dare,’ Penny said angrily. ‘She did this, no one else, only her. She blackmailed you to sleep with her and threatened you with your job too. What kind of scuzzy lowlife does that? If that had been the other way round and you had blackmailed her people would look at you like a sick monster because you’re this big man bullying some little woman into sleeping with you. Why is it any different that she was the one that was bullying you? She deserves everything that she gets.’

‘Well, I still feel a bit bad especially as Edward fired her on the spot.’

‘He fired her? His sister? How did he do that? They both have control of the company. I didn’t think Edward had more power than she did.’

‘Well, apparently he does. The company was originally offered to him by his dad as Clara had no interest in it, but she kicked up such a fuss that their dad was forced to make her managing director too, but he ensured that there was a sixty–forty split in the shares of the company, with Edward having the bigger share so that Edward would always have the deciding vote in the big decisions for the company. Clara’s never done anything for the company, he openly admitted to me that he has no idea what she does all day in her office and that she’s been a dead weight for the company for years, but she was his sister so he just let it go. Anyway he’s sacked her now. He stayed with her whilst she cleared out her things and took her key off her. She won’t be back. It caused a massive row between them and I feel bad for that too. I’m not sure if sacking her was an overreaction on his part or not. I feel like she should have had a warning first but apparently Edward has heard rumours that she’s done this kind of thing before, but he could never prove anything. Maybe he just wanted to get rid of her and this was the excuse he needed. But Audrey will be relocated to another department in the factory and I still have my job so I guess you were right. Fighting for it actually made a difference.’

Penny smiled. ‘I’m glad it all worked out for you and I’m sorry that you had to go through that at all. But don’t feel bad about how it ended for her. She brought this on herself and if it wasn’t you it would have been some other poor man. It would have ended this way eventually. Plus, Jill’s family are completely loaded. Clara is not exactly going to end up out on the streets after losing her job. I think she’ll be fine.’

‘Oh god, Jill … I forgot that she is Clara’s step-mum. Do you think she’ll hate me for this?’

‘I doubt it, there has never been any love lost between her and Clara. Besides, this isn’t your fault, stop thinking that it is.’

Henry nodded as he drove down through the town and out the other side to The Bubble and Froth, a lovely little pub on the furthest reaches of the town that sat nestled in Silver Cove, right on the beach, amongst a cluster of houses. The pub was owned by her brother’s friend Seb and served the most amazing food.

They walked in and Penny admired the gorgeous huge Christmas tree that took pride of place in one corner of the room. It was tastefully decorated and looked almost boring in comparison to the wonderful monstrosity currently sitting in her lounge.

Henry held out Penny’s chair for her and she smiled at his impeccable manners before he sat down opposite her.

‘You look lovely tonight.’ He reached across the table and took her hand.

‘Thank you.’ Penny glanced around the pub, wondering if people were watching them. This was the first time they had properly been out as a couple in White Cliff Bay, but they had already been seen at the tree farm and paraded as a family that day at the gingerbread competition. It seemed that their togetherness was old news as no one was looking in their direction at all. She looked at the empty chair at their table and felt a pang of guilt. ‘I feel bad that Daisy is at home alone.’

‘You did ask her to come with us and it was her idea that we came out without her. I think she likes the idea of us being together, which is a huge U-turn from asking me not to date you last week. She certainly didn’t stay at home because she wanted to watch X Factor – she hates it, she’s never watched a single episode in her life.’

‘Well, I hope it’s that she wants us to get together and she doesn’t feel awkward being a third wheel around us.’

Henry frowned. ‘I hope she doesn’t feel like that either. I certainly didn’t get that sense when she was pushing me out the door and telling me to have a good time but I’ll talk to her just in case.’

Amy, one of the girls who worked in the pub, came and took their drinks orders.

‘I was thinking about Christmas Day. Do you have any plans?’ Henry said after Amy had gone.

‘I’m not sure yet, I might go to my brother’s, but he doesn’t like Bernard in his house so if I did go I’d probably just go in the evening – I couldn’t leave Bernard alone all day. Jill always invites me round but I feel in the way of the big family dinners I know she has. I’m happy to stay in on my own, there’s always some gorgeously trashy Christmas movies to watch and lots of food to eat. Will you go to Anna’s?’

‘We’ve been invited but… I was thinking it’d be nice to spend Christmas on our own this year. We’re always at my mum and dad’s or at Anna’s. It would be lovely to spend it with just me and Daisy. It’s always a tradition that I make mince pies on Christmas Day and we eat them fresh from the oven. They taste awful as I can never get them right but we always do it. One year I suggested that I didn’t do it as my pie making skills were so bad, but Daisy insisted.’