Maggie nodded, too choked up to speak. She hadn’t needed a moment to make up her mind.

Ray grinned and took her hand and pulled her on to the stage and she was laughing, unable to resist.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Ray said, holding up her arm, ‘a big cheer please, for my fiancée, Miss Maggie Corbett!’

There were thunderous cheers, clapping and whooping. Some folk stamped their feet on the wooden floor. Ray put his face up to hers. He looked hopeful and happy, his lovely brown eyes were shining. ‘Yes?’ he asked her. He had to shout over the noise. ‘Yes?’

Maggie laughed. ‘Yes!’ she said. She’d never been so sure of anything in her life.

Ray kissed her, with his one good arm wrapped around her, and there were more whistles and shouts. It was deafening.

All those people staring at her, making a spectacle of herself! Honestly! Maggie could feel herself blushing. Oh, she was blushing like a tomato and she didn’t care.

‘Oi! Is this part of the show?’ someone yelled from the front row.

Yes! Maggie felt like shouting back. Oh, yes. The very best part of all.

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Acknowledgements

Although a work of fiction, A Wartime Secret is inspired by the true story of a bank that moved to a country house for the duration of World War II. Many thanks to the staff and volunteers at Upton House in Warwickshire (now owned by the National Trust), whose magnificent exhibition ‘Banking for Victory’ sowed the seeds of an idea which, many years later, resulted in this novel.

Many thanks to all the friends (virtual and ‘real’) and students, past and present, who have inspired and encouraged me along my writing journey.

Special thanks to Chris Morgan, at whose evening classes in Birmingham it all began and to Chris Cherry, my writing-partner-in-crime, for all the fun and laughter we’ve had, chasing our dreams. Long may it continue.

Without my agent and publisher there would, of course, be no novel and I’m grateful to the Kate Nash Literary Agency and to Robbie Guillory, who saw the book’s potential when it was only half-written and, of course, to the brilliant team at HQ, who fell in love with Maggie’s story.

Thanks to my writing buddy, Sally Jenkins, for her much-valued support and Vielen Dank to my friend Michaela, for kindly checking my (rusty!) German.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the fabulous folk at the Romantic Novelists’ Association and to Janet Gover and Alison May, whose enthusiasm for the initial story idea helped to spur me on.