Isobel snorted. ‘Now, where have I heard that before?’

Mavis leaned closer, whispering even though there was no one else in the hut to overhear. ‘I told you before, Kate, he’s married. If there is anything going on, you’re both running a terrible risk.’

‘It’s not as if he is a flier,’ Isobel resorted to shock tactics, ‘and any day might be his last.’

‘We’re trying to make you see sense,’ Mavis said. ‘We both know how upset you were over Danny and no one more than us wanted you to meet a nice feller and fall in love, but did you have to pick the CO and a married man?’

‘Not very sensible, was it?’ Isobel added.

‘I’ve told you,’ Kate tried to insist. ‘There’s nothing . . .’

‘Well, it ought to stop – now!’ Isobel said ruthlessly, totally disbelieving Kate’s protests, and Mavis added, ‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you.’

‘Kate – come in.’ Philip moved to pull down the blackout blinds on his office window, then came and locked the door behind her. He took her in his arms.

‘Darling, there’s something I have to tell you.’

Fear clutched her stomach. What had happened? Was it something awful?

‘You know, don’t you, that the two squadrons on this station are switching to the new Lancaster bomber?’

She nodded.

‘Well,’ he went on slowly, his blue gaze never leaving her face, ‘so are East Markham.’

Kate stared at him, running her tongue over lips that were suddenly dry.

‘The Lane is too heavy for Markham’s grass runways. So they’re closing East Markham temporarily to lay new concrete runways . . .’

‘And?’ Kate prompted, although now she was beginning to guess what was coming.

‘ . . . and their squadrons are being moved elsewhere – again only temporarily. Kate,’ his fingers gently traced the outline of her face, ‘Danny’s squadron is coming here.’

She found she had been holding her breath. Now she let it out slowly and smiled. ‘That’s all right,’ she said.

He searched her face. ‘I didn’t know how you would feel. I mean, I know you once asked me to see if I could wangle a posting here for him, but – well – that was before he got married and before – us.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ she promised him softly, and some of the anxiety was smoothed from Philip’s face.

Kate was pleased Danny was coming to Suddaby. She would have the chance to talk to him, to explain why she had not attended the wedding. If she could talk to him – alone – she knew she could make him understand. Soon, everything between them would be all right again; it would be as it had always been.

But she could not go home. Even yet, she could not face Rosie – especially a heavily pregnant Rosie.

The day the Lancasters arrived at Suddaby, there was great excitement.