His arms tightened around her. ‘It must have been very difficult for you.’

‘No,’ she said, and there was still surprise in her voice. ‘It helped – really it did. Funny, isn’t it, after all the fuss I made? Although maybe it’s also because I have you now,’ she added realistically.

‘Oh, Kate.’ His voice was hoarse and he buried his face against her hair.

‘There hasn’t—’ she began hesitantly. ‘You haven’t heard anything about – about Danny’s aircraft?’ She felt compelled to ask and yet she knew the answer. Philip would have told her at once if there had been news of any sort.

He held her close and said softly, ‘No, my dear. I’m so sorry, but we’ve heard nothing.’

They sat quietly together in the peace of the woodland for a few moments longer, then Philip kissed her gently and sighed regretfully. ‘I’m sorry, darling, but we really must go.’

Kate reached for her jacket and got out of the back seat of the car.

‘Oh no!’ she groaned as she noticed that the car was lurching drunkenly to one side. ‘We’ve got a puncture.’

Philip got out of the car and stood looking down at the flat tyre. He ran his hand distractedly through his short hair. ‘Oh, hell! We can hardly explain away being stuck in the middle of the wood. Now what are we going to do?’

‘Do? Change the wheel, of course.’

He looked at her blankly for a moment and then shook his head and frowned. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t . . .’

Mischievously, she gave him a mock salute. ‘Oh, but I can – sir! What do you think they taught us in MT training?’

His worried expression cleared a little. ‘Can you really . . .?’

‘Just stand back – and watch!’

In what seemed an incredibly short space of time, Kate had whipped off the huge wheel and replaced it with the spare.

‘Well, well,’ Philip grinned as they got back into the car. ‘You really are a young lady full of surprises. Mind you, if I’d stopped to think for a moment, I should have realized it would have been part of your training,’ and he added with endearing honesty, ‘I suppose part of me can’t get used to the idea of a woman being able to change a huge wheel like that a darn sight quicker than I could.’

As they bounced over the rough track through the trees back towards the road, Kate giggled as he muttered, ‘But thank goodness you could, else we might have had some awkward explaining to do.’