“You’re too polite to say that it goes for too long and that watching grass grow would be more exciting. No, don’t deny it, I can see it in your face.” She put her arm through mine, adjusting with ease to my height, and we started walking around the perimeter of the oval. “By the end of the afternoon, you will be astonished you could ever think such a thing.”

Mr. Brooks was already on the pitch, and I wondered if Sarah had been deliberate in her timing. Since their intentions had been made clear, he had not joined his wife for tea at the sisters’. I had assumed he felt that this whole business was best kept to the women. It wasn’t until I saw him deliver his first ball that I thought “this business” may not be finalised. I was being courted, I realised, and at some point I would have to accept or reject what was being offered. He’d given his hat to the umpire, and the sun shone off his bald head. He was as tall as Sarah was short, and he loped towards the pitch on long thin legs, releasing the ball from a windmill of arms.

“It was Philip’s idea,” Sarah said after his second wide delivery.

“What was?”

“To bring you to the match. Oh, that was short. It’s going to go all the way to the boundary.”

There was applause from one section of the crowd sitting on the other side of the oval.

“Our lot won’t be happy. I daresay he’s distracted. Poor man, he so wanted to impress you.”

“Me?”

“Yes; as I said, it was his idea. He’s been desperate to come to tea, but I kept putting him off. It was uncomfortable, don’t you think?”

I just looked down.

“I think he was hoping to demonstrate his credentials for fatherhood by putting on a good show in the middle.”

Though I liked it, her directness still took me by surprise.

“Well, that’s him done. Fifteen runs off the over. He’ll be glad it’s tea.”

I watched as the cricketers walked from the pitch towards the club rooms. When Philip looked in our direction, Sarah waved. Instead of following his teammates, he made his way across the ground to join us. Long strides, a slight stoop.

“Please tell me you’ve only just arrived,” he said, as he drew close. He might have been blushing or sunburned, I couldn’t tell.

“Can’t do that I’m afraid, darling. We arrived just as Sharp came out to bat.” Sarah stood on tip-toe to kiss him, and I couldn’t help wondering whether Philip’s stoop was an adjustment to marriage.

He looked at the scoreboard. “I’ll be fielding from now on, I expect,” he said. Then he turned to me, his hazel eyes shining.

“Esme,” he said. “It’s so lovely to see you again.”