He leaned towards her over the handle-bars of her bicycle. Gently he rubbed his nose against hers. ‘Well, we’ll be getting married one of these fine days, won’t we?’

‘Well, really!’ Kate said, feigning exasperation, but she could not prevent her generous mouth widening into a broad grin. ‘If that dun’t beat all for a romantic proposal, Danny Eland.’

Suddenly his face was serious and there was a fleeting flash of passion in his dark brown eyes. He reached up and touched her face with strong fingers that were suddenly gentle. ‘I’ve always loved you, Katie Hilton, and I always will. You must know that.’

‘Oh Danny,’ she breathed, knowing her own green eyes were glowing, mirroring his emotion with the same depth of love and longing.

Their faces were inches apart, coming slowly towards each other, until they could each feel the other’s breath on their faces. Their lips met tentatively, trembling on the brink of the unknown; a soft, sweet kiss of innocence.

‘Danny – I do love you so,’ she murmured. As they drew back, they both heard the distant clip-clopping of a pony’s hooves.

‘Oh heck! That’s me mam coming along the Grange road. Where’s she been?’

‘It’s rent day.’

‘Oh – so it is.’

‘Quick – give us ya bike . . .’

Danny seized hold of her bicycle and pushed it up the bank and down the other side. Kate scrambled up after him. They crouched down out of sight of her mother who drove past in the pony and trap. Giggling like a couple of children, they parted the grass and watched as she passed within a few feet of them.

‘So,’ he asked, as they walked down the lane hand-in-hand when Esther was safely out of sight, ‘do ya reckon they’ll let us get wed soon, or d’ya think we’ll have to wait till we’re twenty-one?’

‘I dun’t reckon my mam’ll ever agree to it,’ Kate said. ‘What about yours?’

‘Oh, she’ll be pleased as punch. She loves you.’

‘My mam is fond of you – at least she used to be when we were little, but . . .’

‘Aye – aye, she was.’

There was silence between them, then they both spoke at once.

‘It’s this thing between them . . .’

‘I remember . . .’

‘Sorry – you go first.’

‘I was going to say,’ Danny said slowly, ‘I remember at ya dad’s funeral. It’s all a bit vague . . .’

Kate nodded but did not interrupt.

‘I can remember sitting in the pew in church and watching the coffin in the front of the altar and then when the vicar had finished and ya ma and you and Will Benson came out of the front pew and down the aisle following the coffin as it was taken out . . .’

‘Go on,’ Kate whispered, prompting.