Olivia shrugged. ‘You’d think so, but I can’t see him relenting any time soon.’

‘Maybe if you paid him a visit?’ Ralph suggested. ‘It’s a shame to see father and daughter at odds.’

‘Tell him, not me,’ said Olivia.

Ralph nodded thoughtfully. ‘If you ever wanted to go and see him, I wouldn’t mind coming with you if you thought it might make things easier.’

Olivia smiled. ‘I might just take you up on that. You’re the sort of feller my father would approve of.’

‘Oh?’ said Ralph. ‘He likes devilishly handsome chaps, does he?’

Olivia took a playful swipe at his arm. ‘He likes anyone with ambition,’ she said plainly, ‘and with you being a bank clerk, then working your way up the ladder in the RAF, my father would definitely approve.’

The evening had come to an end and as they stood outside the door to her billet it occurred to Olivia that even if he did try to kiss her – and she very much doubted he would – she had no idea how she would feel after all this time. Just as the thought was running through her mind, Ralph leaned forward and placed his hand around the back of Olivia’s neck, but she instinctively pulled back with a light-hearted giggle. ‘Corporal Stebbins, you should know better than to kiss a lady on the first date, if indeed that’s what this is.’

Smiling, Ralph leaned back. ‘Quite right too.’ He gave her another of his winks. ‘Goodnight, Liv.’

She bade him goodnight before hurrying into the billet where Maude and Josie were eagerly awaiting her return.

‘How’d it go?’ Maude asked before Olivia had time to say ‘hello’.

‘Good,’ said Olivia.

The girls stared at her. ‘Is that it?’ said Maude, disappointed.

Olivia shrugged. ‘The food was lovely …’

‘Oh, come on, Liv!’ Maude said in hushed tones. ‘Did he try and kiss you?’

‘Oh, that,’ said Olivia in a preoccupied fashion, ‘yes, he did.’

‘And?’ asked Josie, getting impatient.

‘And I turned him down,’ Olivia said simply.

Maude stared agog at Olivia. ‘Why on earth would you do that?’

Olivia had been asking herself the same question as she entered the billet. She shrugged. ‘It was instinctive.’

Maude eyed her friend thoughtfully. ‘I know you, Liv, and there’s more to this than meets the eye. What are you not telling us?’

‘I just don’t think we’re a good match,’ Olivia said truthfully.

Josie, who had been perched on the edge of her bed, eager to hear the gossip, now sat back. ‘I don’t get it. Why do you think you’re not a good match?’

Olivia looked in the direction of Beth’s slumbering figure before turning to Maude. ‘You were right about him not liking fast women.’

Maude nodded. ‘That’s because he’s a gentleman!’