Then, one day, it came. After work she came home to find a brief letter, in Enid’s painstaking looped hand. Enid had written:

I’ve tried to find out where you mother is. I’m not well myself, so can’t go far. She moved away months ago and no one can tell me anything. Truth to tell, we’d lost touch. She had got to be such a hard, bitter woman and kept herself to herself, didn’t want anybody. Sorry that’s all I know.

I hope you’ll be very happy, Katie. Come and see me sometime and let me meet him.

Regards,

Enid

Katie stared at the words, bitter for a moment, and sad, but knowing that she was also relieved. When Marek came home she showed it to him. He studied the flimsy sheet of paper, then silently came and put his arms around her.

‘It’s all right, I’ve got all I need,’ she said. And held him tight.

There were also arrangements to be made in the house for after they were married. This turned out to be simple: Marek would move into the attic, and Sybil suggested that Katie make a curtain to divide off Michael’s end of the room, for the sake of a little privacy. There was the usual daily round of work and looking after Michael, and there were those close, private loving times.

As the spring came they would take walks in the park, sometimes with Michael, or later, once he was asleep. It was bliss walking round amid the greening trees, even if they did still have to wrap up warm. They would hold hands, stopping often to kiss in the seclusion of the trees, and talk endlessly, planning their future.

‘We don’t get much time on our own, do we?’ Katie said one mild evening as they were out strolling around. They had stopped to embrace, near the old church that looked over the park. Sometimes she felt guilty that Michael dominated her time so much. She knew how hungry Marek was to be with her alone.

‘It’s all right.’ He held her close and she felt his breath on her hair. ‘It is how it is with family. And soon . . .’ He leaned back to look into her eyes. ‘Soon we shall have our own family, yes?’

‘Yes, my love.’ She reached up and caressed his cheek. She longed to give him everything, to make him happy and settled in his new country.

How he longed for family, and for her! They had talked often about their moral view of things, how their physical relations should wait until after they were married. In reality it was not so simple. Living so close to each other, both so in love and full of longing for each other, it became impossible to resist.

The first time he had come to her room, very late. She woke to the sound of him whispering her name.

‘Marek?’ Heart pounding with excitement, she sat up, pleased to know he was close at any time. ‘Is everything all right?’