Juliet rolled over and reached out her arm for Harrison. He wasn't there. She sat upright and glanced around the room. He was nowhere to be seen. She looked at her watch. Eight-thirty on Christmas morning. Where could he have gone?

Last night, after they had spent an hour or so in her old bedroom, they'd returned downstairs to find the party was finally coming to a natural end. They sat and chatted with the guests remaining until it was time for Midnight Mass. Taking several cars, and Juliet going with Harrison, they went to St Clement's and when they came out, it was snowing.

'Are you spending the night at The Grange?' Rosa asked her.

'If you don't mind, Mum. I promise I'll come home first thing in the morning and help prepare Christmas dinner.'

'Oh sweetheart, don't you worry about it. Your father and I can manage perfectly well. Zoe's going to be at The Grange as well tonight, so come home when you both like. It would be nice to have dinner together though.'

I'll definitely come home in plenty of time for that,' Juliet had promised.

She had spent the most glorious night in Harrison arms. And in his bed. But now, he was nowhere to be seen.

'Morning. Merry Christmas!' He appeared in the doorway with a breakfast tray on which there was smoked salmon, caviar and scrambled eggs, two large glasses of orange juice and a bottle of champagne.'

'Merry Christmas,' she said, beaming at him. 'For a dreadful moment I thought I'd imagined last night when I woke up alone, but I saw I was in your room so I knew some of it had happened.'

He looked contrite for a second before he smiled. 'I'm sorry. I should've waited until you woke up. But I was excited to start the day.' He placed the tray on the bedside table, and bent down to kiss her. 'Last night was the best night of my life. I love you, Juliet.'

'Best night so far,' she said. 'I love you too. I promised Mum I'd go home this morning. You're welcome to join me, but I assume you'll be having Christmas dinner here.'

He nodded. 'I suppose I should. Especially as Grandfather is planning on leaving tomorrow. Who knows when, or if, he'll come back. I may actually pay him to stay away. Although he is family, so we'll see. We could always have dinner at both. We're having ours this evening. You're having yours around two, I think you said.'

Juliet nodded. 'Two Christmas dinners? I'm not sure I could manage two.'

He grinned. 'We can work some of it off, in between. What do you say? Even if we don't eat much at either, it'll be fun to spend out first Christmas together with both families, don't you think? And we've got plenty of food here if your mum doesn't have enough.'

Juliet was excited at the prospect. 'I'll text Zoe now and see what she thinks, and I'll call mum after that. Are you sure, Harrison?'

'It means I get to spend all day with you. Of course I'm sure.'

Juliet sent her a text and got a reply a few minutes later while she and Harrison were eating breakfast. Zoe had said yes, and then Juliet called her mum who loved the idea.

'We're all set,' Juliet said. 'But it means I need to go and help prepare all the extra veg.'

'I can come and help with that.' Harrison removed the empty plates and poured each of them another glass of champagne which he placed on the bedside table. 'But first I need to play with my favourite present for a while.'

He pulled the duvet over them and Juliet burst into laughter.