‘You love her?’ Daisy said, quietly.

‘Yes.’

‘After one week. You hypocrite. You belittled what I had with Josh, saying I hadn’t known him for long enough but somehow you fell in love in a week too. And that isn’t something that you thought you should tell me?’

‘We were going to tell you, after Christmas. I just wanted you to feel a bit more settled here before I told you this was the woman that I wanted to marry.’

Penny felt tears spring to her eyes. He loved her and wanted to marry her? She wanted to kiss him and hold him but she couldn’t.

Daisy stared at them and then stormed off, slamming the connecting door between them.

‘Shit,’ Henry said, quickly dropping the duvet and getting dressed. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

Tugging his shirt on and doing up a few cursory buttons, he made to run after Daisy, but he came back and kissed her briefly.

‘I love you and I’m going to fix this so we can be together properly without any secrets. Trust me on that.’

Penny nodded and he kissed her on the forehead and left, closing the connecting door between them.

She heard his footsteps thunder up the stairs and more shouting between the two of them, though she couldn’t make out the words. He had to make this right because she loved him too and she couldn’t lose him before they had even started.

Penny stared out the bedroom window at the muted early morning sky as the snow fell thick and fast, swirling and dancing in the wind.

She hadn’t been able to sleep much, hoping that Henry would appear in her bedroom and tell her it was all sorted out. But he never came.

Surely he wouldn’t let this come between them. But Daisy had also been the only reason he had broken up with his previous girlfriends. She would always come first for him.

Her head hurt. After the stress of thinking that her and Henry were finished, to getting back together with him and now this, it felt like they were over again.

Tonight was the Christmas Eve ball and it looked like she’d be going alone if Henry couldn’t right things with Daisy.

She got out of bed and went into the shower, feeling thoroughly deflated, especially as the night before Henry had told her he loved her.

She walked back into the bedroom and saw her phone was flashing silently on the bed side table.

She grabbed it and noticed she’d had three missed calls from Maggie. She also noticed it was a lot later in the day than she had originally thought; the snow had made it much darker and she must have slept a little late that morning without realising it. She quickly phoned Maggie back.

When her friend answered it was clear that she had gone into full-blown panic mode. ‘Penny, the bloody, pissing, sodding snow. Everything is ruined, every fucking thing.’

‘Maggie, what’s wrong, what do you mean?’

She moved to the window and froze in shock. Everywhere, as far as the eye could see in every direction, was covered in a thick blanket of snow. On top of her van’s roof was almost two foot of the stuff and the wheels were almost buried too.

‘The ball will have to be cancelled. Everything was due to arrive today, the tables, chairs, the food, the DJ, the heaters, even most of the waiters and waitresses were coming from different towns,’ Maggie said and Penny could tell that she was almost crying with the frustration of it all. ‘Half the ice carvers lost their sculptures due to the power cut the other night and that was going to be the main decoration for the evening.’

‘Hang on a minute. We are not cancelling the ball. We’re not. Not after all your hard work and planning. We’ve had a ball in the town as far back as I can remember and we’re not going to cancel just because of a little bit of snow.’

‘It’s more than just a little bit of snow, Penny,’ Maggie snapped.

Penny ignored the anger in her best friend’s voice. ‘Give me five minutes to have a think about this and I’ll call you back.’

Penny hung up and paced the room for a moment before scrolling through her phone. The town council had a telephone tree for when they needed to arrange a meeting or if there was a problem in the town like a faulty traffic light that people were being asked to avoid or an escaped cow when people were asked to help round it up. This counted as a really big problem.

She quickly composed a text explaining the problem and asked for help. She included her mobile number on the bottom so people would reply to her and not the person who had forwarded on the text. She sent it to the five people on her part of the tree, knowing that within half an hour almost every member of the town would be informed and many of their friends and family too, which would cover almost the entire town.

She got dressed quickly while she waited. As she pulled her jeans on, the phone beeped. As she did up her belt the phone beeped again, seven times in quick succession. She pulled her snow boots on and quickly did up the laces as the phone beeped again and again and again.

She picked it up, seeing that she already had over thirty messages. Wow these guys were quick.

There were offers of food from most people, mainly sandwiches, crisps and cakes, but probably enough to keep everybody satisfied tonight. Everyone who replied said they would bring their own soft and alcoholic drinks. Kathleen from The Pilchard was offering all her tables, chairs and outdoor patio heaters if someone could come and pick them up. The landlords from The Bubble and Froth, The Mermaid and The Smuggler’s Inn were all offering the same thing as they were all going to be closed for the night anyway due to the ball. They were all donating bottles of wine and soft drinks too. Someone had an iPod and excellent speakers they often used for parties with a huge range of music, mostly light pop stuff that everyone could sing along to. There was a small digging team already down in the town that were digging out the main roads and the side roads leading up to the marquee. Thankfully most of the main roads in the town had been gritted the night before, even if the roads leading into the town hadn’t been, so they didn’t have mountains of the stuff to get rid of.

She quickly typed a reply, including everyone who had texted her and the five people on her part of the telephone tree. She explained that food was covered, asked if anyone willing to help with the digging could go down to the town with a spade and if anyone had access to a big van that could go round and collect all the tables and chairs. She also asked if anyone could donate some tablecloths and candles too. She waited a moment to see if she got any replies and, within a few minutes, several texts had come in with whole families agreeing to be part of the digging team, two people with large vans had offered their help with collecting the tables and several people had said they would bring tablecloths and candles to the marquee.

Although it wasn’t anything like what Maggie had planned, the ball could at least go ahead in one way or another.

She called her friend back.

‘Maggie, I have food planned, sandwiches and cake, and people are bringing their own drinks and…’

‘People have paid forty pounds for these tickets and we’re going to give them sandwiches? They’ll be asking for their money back.’

‘No, they won’t, it’s for charity and the people in this town care about the ball. No one will give a shit whether they are eating sandwiches or some chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese. And sandwiches is better than no food at all, now stop being so moany and listen to what I’ve sorted out.’

Maggie was silent for a moment. ‘OK,’ she said, quietly, obviously suitably chastised.

Penny explained the plan and that she was going to get down to the marquee to help set up as things started to arrive. Maggie agreed to meet her there as soon as she could get through the town.