Anna looked from one to the other. ‘What am I supposed to do, then?’

‘Whatever you like.’ Edward shrugged. ‘Why don’t you go out? Take yourself up West for the day. You used to like a trip around the shops.’

‘I don’t want to go up West. I want to stay here with you. I’ve been looking forward to us spending the day together,’ Anna protested, but Edward was already ushering her out of the kitchen and down the passageway towards the shop.

‘Tell you what, we’ll go out together,’ he said. ‘When the shop closes for dinner, we’ll have a walk around the park. Or we could go round to Wheeler’s café for a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, how about that?’

Anna pouted. ‘I still don’t understand why I can’t help you.’

‘Because you’d be too much of a distraction.’ Edward’s eyes glinted with meaning. ‘Do you really think I’d be able to get anything done with you there? I’d just want to kiss you all the time. Like this …’

He pulled her into his arms for a demonstration. As his tongue plundered her mouth, Anna felt the heat rising, melting her from inside.

She pushed him away, laughing. ‘Edward! Not here!’

‘You see what I mean? We’d make poor Charlie blush.’

‘I reckon it’d take a lot to make Charlie Atkins blush!’ Anna glanced back at the door to the kitchen, now firmly closed. ‘I suppose I could help Mrs Church in the shop,’ she said reluctantly.

‘Like I said, a glutton for punishment!’ Edward rolled his eyes.

‘Unless you think I’d be too much of a distraction for you there, too?’ Anna teased him.

‘You’re a distraction wherever you are.’ Edward wrapped his arms around her waist, scooping her into the air until her face was level with his. Next minute he was kissing her hungrily again, and this time Anna didn’t try to push him away.

They were still locked in a passionate embrace in the passageway, oblivious to everything else, when a voice behind them said, ‘Don’t mind me, I’m sure.’

Anna swung round to see Mrs Church’s thin shape in the doorway to the kitchen, bundled up in a heavy overcoat, a shapeless hat jammed on her head.

‘Charlie thought you might be upstairs,’ she said, looking from one to the other.

‘Another five minutes and we might have been,’ Edward said.

Anna nudged him sharply, glad that the darkness of the shop hid her blushing face.

Mrs Church looked from one to the other, her thin face tightening. ‘You ain’t at work today then,’ she said to Anna.

‘No, I’ve got the day off,’ she said, fighting to stop herself from laughing. She didn’t dare look at Edward behind her, his hands still encircling her waist.

‘That’s nice, ain’t it?’ Mrs Church addressed herself to Edward. ‘Bet you’ll be glad of an extra pair of hands, won’t you?’

‘Actually, Edward doesn’t need me, so I thought I’d help you out in the shop.’