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‘So, now the younger ones are upstairs, can we talk about Barbara?’ Polly asked.

‘I was so mad at her, but she sent us a letter saying sorry and, well, I don’t know why but it made me sad,’ Aleksy said. He was a sensitive boy. He really did have a big heart.

‘I would have called the police,’ Tommy started. ‘Locked her up, thrown away the key.’

‘Tommy, you more than anyone know about giving people second chances,’ Franceska admonished.

‘Yeah, but I didn’t do … OK, fair enough, but what if she is just pretending to be sorry?’ Tommy did make a good point.

‘She wasn’t that good of an actress, not if that audition we all had to watch was anything to go by,’ Jonathan said.

‘The letter said that she was going to get help – some counselling for her grief – and also the doctor had given her something to help with her depression, so she was taking steps to feel better and behave better,’ Connie explained.

‘But she’s not in the show, right?’ Tommy asked.

‘No, I can’t cope with re-making anything else,’ Tomasz said, but with a laugh.

‘You’ve all worked so hard and we’re not doing anything to jeopardise that. We are pretty sure she won’t do anything else, but just in case we have three checks a day at the hall and this time we’re making sure the back door is locked,’ Claire said.

‘Oh goodness, I think that was my fault; I didn’t check it,’ Polly said. ‘I feel awful.’

‘Me too,’ Tomasz added.

‘I should have known. You are terrible at locking up, always losing your keys,’ Franceska said to her husband.

‘No need to blame anyone; it’s over now,’ Sylvie said. ‘And, thankfully, nothing that we couldn’t fix happened. I’m just glad the cats are alright.’

That was a matter for debate, George’s tail was still a bit pink and no one moaned about that more than him. Especially as he said it hindered him being a realistic sheep.

‘But, that does leave us with a problem,’ Marcus said.

‘What?’

‘Who’s going to be the wise man now she can’t do it?’ Marcus asked.

‘Jon will have to do it,’ Claire said. Jonathan choked on his drink.

‘No, no way. I’m in charge of—’

‘Budgeting, yes we know but that is all really done now, isn’t it?’ Claire said.

‘What do you mean?’ Jonathan said.

‘Well, we’ve spent all the money we need and now we just have to watch the money coming in,’ Aleksy said.

‘So, I need to be in charge of that,’ Jonathan replied. ‘I absolutely need to be in charge of making sure that the money is all counted and correct.’

‘But it’s all online, mate, so we don’t need to make a song and dance about it,’ Matt said.

‘Good pun, Matt.’ Tomasz laughed.

‘I am not going to sing.’ Jonathan looked panicked.

‘OK, how about you do the speaking but not the singing,’ Connie suggested. ‘We can’t get anyone else at this short notice, the dress rehearsal is only a week away.’

‘Which reminds me, it’s nearly time for the advent calendars and I also want to get started on Christmas shopping,’ Claire said. ‘Who’s in?’

As they discussed Christmas shopping– and to my delight, Christmas lunch – I was reminded of my old plan about the Sunday Lunch Club getting to see the show.

I gestured for Snowball to come with me.

‘What is it, Alfie? You look as if you have something on your mind,’ she said.

‘I was hoping we could get them to realise that the perfect time to have the Sunday Lunch Club to see the show would be on Christmas Day. It would also be such a lovely way to end Christmas.’

‘Right, I remember you saying, but how do we tell them that?’

‘That’s what I can’t figure out,’ I said. ‘I know they have to think of it and I am guessing maybe Harold or Aleksy would be our best bet for coming up with that idea,’ I suggested.

‘Well, I could work on Harold and you work on Aleksy but I’m still not sure …’ Snowball trailed off. She was right, this was a difficult idea to convey. But we had to try.

We returned to find Tommy showing the group some of his latest videos that he’d done for the show.

‘They are so good and they’ve really helped to promote the show. The first show is almost sold out already, and there are really strong sales for the other two,’ Aleksy said.

‘And there’s already been quite a lot of donations, so the shelter will be getting a good amount of money this Christmas,’ Jonathan added.

‘Can we get a cat camera for Alfie?’ Tommy asked.

‘Yowl!’ No, I replied.

‘Why?’ Jonathan asked.

‘We could put the footage on social media, make a story about the show from a cat’s point of view. It’d be so cool,’ Tommy pushed. I did not like where this was going.

‘But the footage was pretty bad – grainy and it wasn’t that easy to see – so unless you’ve got loads of cash—’ Matt said.

‘Which we absolutely do not,’ Jonathan interjected.

‘So that’s a no then,’ Franceska smiled. She was definitely happy to have her lovely son back rather than the terror he was becoming when this all started.

‘No,’ Jonathan said. I felt relieved.

‘Sunday Lunch Club tomorrow,’ Polly said. ‘We’ve got our two coming. I feel bad because they keep asking about the show and I don’t know how to get them to see it.’