December 12th broke as a clear day, windless and mild, but as the day wore on, the temperature dropped as a cutting wind rose. At Meg and Lillian’s cottage, the day was filled with laughter as old stories were retold, party preparations, drying the dog after walks on the strand, rearranging the parlor, and answering the ringing telephone. David and Niall arrived at two o’clock, just as Holly rang. A little breathlessly down the blower, Holly announced, “Mum’s gone to work—I mean, can you even believe it? When I went out with our weekly messages she was as good as gold, sitting by the fire and knitting. I returned, not to a seated mother with a chesty cold doing as she was told, but to a note telling me to drive up and go to my party, she’d gone to work. I fairly flew around the flat just n
