Daisy hit him with the gloves she’d removed from her hands. ‘You told me you like your girls to be nicely padded in the right places.’

‘I do, my darling. So you will have to be the one to marry me, if I am to have Florrie as my sister-in-law.’

Not sure if he meant this or was still joking with her, Daisy didn’t reply. She giggled and was rewarded with a look that melted her heart.

Alex drove in silence for a while. He surprised her by not turning towards the town, but heading for the countryside instead. The road wound around, bend after bend. The roar of Alex’s sports car made it difficult to carry on any further conversation, so Daisy enjoyed the time, just looking at him. Watching how his dark, curly hair flopped about in the wind; imagining his twinkling blue eyes looking into hers, and herself snuggling into his strong body.

But Alex’s mention of Rosie had Daisy feeling unable to concentrate, as her sister kept dancing into her head. And so did the image of her German man, for she was certain that Rosie did carry a torch for him. Suddenly she wanted to tell Rosie that it was all right to love whoever she wanted to; that she understood the feeling of falling hopelessly in love, and how you didn’t choose the person, he was chosen for you in some magical way – otherwise, why didn’t it happen to her until she was thousands of miles away from home, in a land she’d never in her wildest dreams thought she would ever visit? And if Alex hadn’t been British, but a German, or African, or Japanese for that matter, it wouldn’t have mattered; she would love him and want to be with him. I’ll write to Rosie and tell her this. I can’t bear the way I was with her. I need her to know that I approve of whoever she loves.

Why she felt this compunction, Daisy didn’t consider at this moment, as Alex had pulled off the road into a dirt track. A tingling excitement grabbed the muscles of her stomach as he switched off the engine and turned to her.

‘I’ve brought a picnic with me. I had the kitchen staff make it up. I want you all to myself, Daisy. I don’t want to share you with a roomful in a stuffy restaurant.’

Daisy couldn’t speak. There was something in the way Alex was looking at her, and in the tone of his voice, that held her suspended.