Puzzled, she followed him back into the line of trees, he still holding her hand, which he had done only a few times before. Once they were under the canopy, he turned to face her, laying his hands on her shoulders. Seeing the look in his eyes, her legs went weak. It was not just her own heart that was captured. She could see in his eyes that he was full of a fierce emotion and that moved her further still.

‘My dear Margaret,’ he said. ‘All this time we have been growing in friendship as godly brother and sister. You are so much younger than me but I sense that you feel as I do – that there is a bond stronger than death which has formed between us. You are mine – I am certain of it.’

The words pierced her to the core. She stood trembling, looking up into his eyes. Her future unfurled before her. They would marry, she would be the wife of a distinguished and passionate man of God. Charles had talked many times of his sense of calling to the mission field in the wider world. Her life would open like a flower, serving the Lord and caring for this extraordinary man.

‘You feel it too, don’t you?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, her pulse so fast that she almost thought she might faint. And she did feel it – sensations that vibrated through her because he was close to her and was affected by her.

Charles suddenly put his head back and drew in a sharp breath. Then he looked at her again with a strange shrewd expression, as if warily assessing her. Margaret’s blood seemed to slow for a chill second, as if she had done something terribly wrong.

‘God, woman – you have no idea just how lovely you are, do you? How alluring? You test my will every day – seeing you . . .’

He drew her to him, planting his lips upon hers so suddenly that she almost cried out. She was overpowered by his body, the sound of his breathing, his tongue, the way he pressed her close against him. Was this right? Was this what a man did? She had so little idea about anything. She and Annie had no mother to ask about such private things. But she was overcome by the emotional force of him as well as his physical strength. After all her years of sickness and uncertainty, God had answered her prayers in the form of this wonderful man and his overwhelming need of her.

‘We must marry – very soon,’ he said when he drew back, and his eyes burned into hers.

Margaret was reeling from the suddenness of this. ‘I don’t think Father will allow me to marry until I am twenty-one.’

‘Twenty-one?’ His voice was tense, almost angry.

‘But you are only nineteen, are you not? That is an age away!’