‘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?’

He felt his way to sit on the side of her bed. ‘Yes.’ There was a silence. ‘I need to be with you. Can I come into your bed?’

They had lain many times on top of the sheets, twined together, kissing. Now she pulled the covers back and felt his long, lean frame climb in beside her and his lips seeking out hers. Quietly, intensely, they loved each other and slept pressed together, his belly at her back. When the dawn came she turned to find him watching her, smiling when he saw she was awake. She leaned up on her arm and looked down at him, the light reaching in at the edge of the curtain picking out the angles in his face. How she loved that face! She always wanted to touch his cheek, feeling the sharp angle of his cheekbone. She stroked back his hair.

‘You’re very beautiful,’ he whispered.

‘So are you.’ She smiled joyfully, then lay and held him. ‘I love you so much. I can’t really believe it.’

He rested his hand on her belly. ‘Soon you will be my wife,’ he said. ‘My dear wife, Katie.’ He said it with such happiness in his voice that she almost wanted to weep.

‘I must go soon to my own room,’ he said, ‘or little Michael will be awake.’

He kissed her and sat up.

‘Marek . . .’

‘Yes?’

‘If we keep doing this, I might have a baby.’

‘Yes.’ He smiled. ‘Yes, I think so. That is good!’