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Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Margaret Dickinson
  3. Dedication page
  4. Contents
  5. Part One
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Part Two
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Sow the Seed
  50. Note
  51. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  52. Copyright page

Kate smiled as she read the letter. Fool! she thought, he’s only nine years older than Rosie and yet he talks as if she’s still a child. Then her smile faded and her glance went to the window. Her hands, still holding the letter, lay in her lap. She looked out across the gently rolling landscape. But Rosie was no longer a child. She was a young woman who liked to flirt and have a good time. And she had spent a weekend with Danny.

For the first time in her life, Kate felt a tinge of jealousy towards Rosie Maine.

In her reply posted the same day, Kate promised she would get leave the very next time he did. ‘Then we can go home together. I do miss you so, and I’ve so much to tell you.’ She paused, her pen wavering above the page, knowing that what she was going to write next was unfair, possessive when she had no right to be, and yet she could not help herself.

‘And if it doesn’t work out and I can’t get leave, maybe you could come and stay somewhere near here instead of going home.’

Kate ignored her conscience and posted the letter quickly.

A whole month went by and she did not hear from Danny. Now it was her turn to worry that something might have happened to him.

Twenty-Six

‘I know what we ought to do,’ Mavis said in her best organizing voice. ‘We ought to go to a dance in Lincoln.’

Kate gasped and Isobel looked disdainful. ‘Do you think that’s appropriate in the circumstances?’ Her glance flickered over the empty bed that had been Edith’s. No one had arrived yet to fill it.

‘Edith wouldn’t have wanted us to mope about it. What matters is that we should remember her.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Kate said, and even Isobel shrugged.

‘If I can fix it up with some of the lads, we’ll go into Lincoln next Saturday night. There’s bound to be a dance going on somewhere. Dave’ll know.’ With that Mavis whirled about and was gone from the hut, banging the door behind her, without giving Kate or Isobel any time to argue further.

Kate shook her head, smiling fondly after her friend. Then she reached into her locker for her writing pad.

‘Dear Danny,’ she began. ‘My new friend Mavis – you’d like her, she’s so jolly – has bullied us into going to a dance in Lincoln on Saturday night. How I wish you were nearer and could go too?

Isobel eased her last pair of silk stockings over her shapely legs with tender care. ‘If anyone ladders these tonight at the dance, I’ll get them put on a charge.’ She turned to look at Kate who was still sitting on her bed. ‘Are you getting ready or what?’