His use of this word made her laugh all the more. He reached across, saying, ‘May I?’, serious now, and took her hand. ‘I really do want to know about you,’ Simon said. ‘I’m not just making conversation.’

So she told him, a little – the bare facts – drawing a veil over quite how poor they had been and Uncle Patrick’s difficulties and how he died. She portrayed a gentle, sheltered upbringing. Out of her usual reserve, she did not talk for long. Soon afterwards he suggested they leave, and they put on their coats and went out into the freezing night.

‘Ooh,’ Katie said, her chest clenching with the cold. ‘My, that’s a shock.’

‘Let me get the engine on – that’ll warm us up . . . Come on – you get in and get warm.’ He ushered her considerately into the car and she was warmed by this as much as being out of the frosty night.

They drove home, Simon talking a little more about his family. He pulled up just along the street from her house. Only now, Katie was suddenly seized with dread. What on earth was the time? Could she go in looking as if she’d been toiling away at the works all this time?

But a second later she realized angrily that she didn’t care. Why shouldn’t she have some life? She felt she was being swept along, as though in a fast-moving stream. Nothing and nobody was going to stop her seeing Simon, if he wanted to see her. It felt exciting to be wanted by someone.

He turned and looked at her through the darkness. She couldn’t see his expression.

‘This has been the best night of my life,’ he said.

‘Really?’ She was so amazed by this that she almost laughed. Her heart was pounding hard. He was having more and more of an effect on her. Was she really that special to him? Surely he couldn’t mean that, not with all the busy life he had had . . . the other girls?

‘Well,’ she dared to say, ‘it’s certainly been the best I’ve had.’

There was a silence, during which they looked at each other across through the gloom.

‘May I kiss you?’ he asked.

Timid, but wanting the kiss more than anything, she moved towards him and felt herself taken into his arms. She wrapped hers round him, acutely aware of the weave of his jacket under her hands. It all felt astonishing, miraculous. Their lips found each other’s gently, then passionately. She didn’t know how long they sat there. All she could feel was the closeness of him, the warmth and slight roughness of his cheek, his searching lips, until they drew back for a moment. Katie felt dazed.

‘It’s so fast – all this,’ he said. ‘But my goodness, you’re so beautiful. I do believe I’m in love with you, Katie.’

‘I – I love you too,’ she said, feeling astonished, crazed even, at bringing out these words for the first time ever, and so soon. Was it wrong to say such weighty things so easily? Or was this whole evening just in her imagination? But he was here, she could feel him. It was all real. ‘I don’t want to let you go . . .’ she whispered. ‘And have to see you tomorrow and pretend I hardly know you.’