‘—or there are nettles or thorns in the way. Sometimes you have to lift up a leaf and look carefully and then you find a perfect one: a treasure.’

‘Which is exactly what you’ve found in Jim,’ Nancy said. ‘A treasure!’ She turned to the others. ‘Pam’s getting married before the year’s out, you know.’

Charity shook her head. ‘That’s jolly good advice, Pam, I’m sure, and I wish you all the best but unless I can find a handsome farmer, I’m never getting married.’

There were gasps all round. Even Miss Sharp, who’d been quiet up to now, turned to listen, holding her bowl aloft.

‘Why ever not?’ Elsie asked.

Maggie was sure everyone was thinking the same; that beautiful Charity must surely have her pick of men.

Charity laughed and flexed a bicep. ‘Who’d have me, for a start? Look at these muscles! I’m positively ruined!’

When the laughter died down, she grew more serious. ‘It strikes me that all wives do is sit around drinking tea and having babies. I want to do something more than that with my life. Why chain yourself to someone who might turn out to be a complete rotter?’

Elsie sniffed. ‘You’ll change your mind. You simply haven’t met the right chap yet.’

‘What kind of fella would you like, Elsie?’ Pam asked.

Elsie bucked up, clearly pleased to be asked. ‘Now, let me think,’ she mused. She gazed over the hills, as though imagining her future husband. ‘I don’t mind how ugly he is, as long as he doesn’t have false teeth.’

They all shrieked.

‘Imagine them,’ Elsie went on, ‘smiling at you in a glass on the bedstand at night!’

‘Anything else?’ Pam asked.

Elsie pursed her lips. ‘Someone like my old dad. Down to earth and handy round the house. Provided he has a good heart and is sincere, I don’t mind what he looks like.’

‘What about you, Maggie?’ Pam asked. ‘What kind of chap do you go for?’

Everyone was looking at her. Oh, blast Pam and Nancy and their stupid questions about men. Couldn’t they talk about anything else?

‘This is like being with your aunties at a wedding,’ Ray said. ‘Are you courting, dear?’ He did a fairly convincing impression of an old lady and everyone laughed.

Maggie was so grateful to him for distracting everyone that, for a split second, she could have kissed Ray Maguire.

‘Whenever I’m at a wedding,’ he continued, ‘old people poke me and say, “You’ll be next!”. I’ve started to do the same to them at funerals.’

‘Oh Ray, you’re a card!’ Nancy said, shaking her head.

‘Anyway,’ Pam said, ‘at the risk of sounding like one of Ray’s nosy aunties, we were asking Maggie what kind of chap she goes for.’