The sound of footsteps in the corridor made Judy panic for a moment, but she took a deep breath, forcing herself to sound calm.

‘He’s here, Ma. Just sit tight and leave the rest to me.’

‘I could do with another tot of sherry wine, Judy.’

‘Nonsense. Do you want him to think that you are a toper? Sit quietly and let me do the talking.’ Judy waited for the rap on the door, then moved swiftly to open it. ‘Come in, Mr Faulkner. I expect you’re wondering why I asked you to come here today.’

Wilfred Faulkner was a big man, used to working in the stables and apparently more comfortable when he was with horses than he was at this moment. He stepped into the room, clutching his cap in his hands. ‘I was a bit curious, miss.’

Judy opened her mouth to explain, but Hilda cut her short.

‘Wilfred, it’s me, Hilda. I’m here behind the screen.’

His mouth dropped open and he cleared his throat noisily. ‘What are you doing hiding behind that thing, Hilda?’

‘There’s something I want you to see before I give you my answer to the question you asked yesterday.’

‘I’m hoping that you will accept my offer, Hilda. I haven’t got much, but what I do have will be yours if you’ll agree to marry me.’

‘That’s just the point,’ Hilda said softly. ‘You know about my injury, but you haven’t seen it. I want you to take a good look, and if you can’t abide the sight of my stump, then we’ll say no more about it. I don’t want us to marry and then you have the shock of your life.’

‘Hilda, me dear, I can’t believe you would think that of me. Wasn’t I a boy soldier sent out to fight in the Crimean Peninsula in ’53? I saw many things what a boy of fourteen should not see, so you mustn’t worry about your poor leg.’

‘But I do, Wilfred. I want you to take a good look before you commit yourself to marriage.’

‘My dear, I’ve loved you from afar for the last ten years, only I thought I wasn’t good enough to propose to a lady like you. I would count myself the luckiest and happiest man in the world if you would marry me.’

Judy wiped a tear from her eyes, wishing she had had the forethought to put a hanky in her pocket. ‘Shall I pull back the screen, Ma?’

‘Yes, but only to show the worst of it.’

Judy folded back part of the screen to reveal the pitiful stump just below her mother’s knee. She studied Wilfred’s face and saw that he, too, was crying. Tears trickled down his weather-beaten cheeks, disappearing into the soft fluff of his neatly trimmed beard and moustache. He said nothing as he moved the screen aside and he went down on one knee.

‘Hilda Begg, I loves you, girl. I wants you to be me wife more than anything in the whole wide world, and to me you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Will you do me the honour of being my wife?’