‘I know.’ He kissed her neck, her cheek. ‘But at least we shall see each other tomorrow. That’s good, isn’t it? And tomorrow night? What about that? Please don’t tell me you can’t!’

‘Yes,’ she said, without hesitation. ‘Of course I can.’

At last, reluctantly, they released each other and she stood and waved as he drove away, her heart full to overflowing.

Fourteen

‘And where were you last night?’

Vera’s voice was calm, but held a brooding coldness that Katie knew spelled trouble. She didn’t know exactly what time she had finally slipped into the dark house, trying desperately not to let the door squeak, taking off her shoes to creep up the stairs. All the time, struggling through the darkness in which her own breathing sounded deafening, she expected Vera’s voice to ring out accusingly. But there had been only silence. She had got away with it – for the moment.

And at that moment she didn’t care what trouble she got into. She’s not stopping me seeing him, that she isn’t! She lay in the dense darkness, gradually growing warmer, and seeing again and again Simon’s face as he had looked at her in the car: ‘I think I love you . . .’ She was too excited and infatuated to sleep. Wasn’t he everything she could have dreamed of? He was handsome, gentlemanly, educated and with good prospects, of course – even property of his own and a car! But though these things all added to her sense of wonder that he was interested in her, it was his sheer presence – the way he looked into her eyes as they talked, the slightly nervous way he rubbed one of his thumbs with the other as they were sitting at the table, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled and his rumbling laugh. Of course it had been a bit of a struggle making conversation at first. They had different interests, and a man had to have his interests, would be dull without them. And they had yet to get to know each other properly. Over and over again she relived the moment when his lips had touched hers, the flicker of his tongue, her first time in the arms of a man, their first kiss. It took her a long time to fall asleep.

When Katie woke the next morning she dressed, humming happily to herself. Holding up one of her lisle stockings to check for holes, she wished she had something much more feminine to wear. She decided to treat herself to some new silk stockings. Her one pair had been mended so many times they were past it. She dressed smartly as usual, feeling different now, older, as if she was suddenly more a woman of the world.

Her mother’s voice cut through her happy mood. She was looking up from the bottom of the stairs, holding a cup of tea. ‘You may have thought I didn’t hear you come sneaking in, young lady, but I did.’