David’s mother took Cecile totally for granted. Laura could see that clearly without experiencing any revealing insight into the difference with which she treated her own two children.

David’s friends and fellow officers had been ensconced in the local hotel. They had whipped him up to London for his stag night and he had got married with little sleep and a hangover.

Fleur had floated through the hot, dreamy summer day in a private cloud of happiness. In the run-up to the wedding she had not seen much of David as he was completing a flying course with the Army Air Corps in Middle Wallop and she was stuck in army quarters with her parents in Northern Ireland, bored and counting the days. She had escaped briefly to London. Sam was in his second year at Guy’s Hospital and she stayed in the flat his Australian girlfriend shared with two other girls and got a temporary job in a wine bar. Sam and Angie were both in medical school, working every hour God made, and Fleur found herself counting the days.

Two weeks before the wedding David got his wings and was jubilant. He was also exultant to be getting married in the village he had grown up in. All he needed now was a good posting and life would be perfect.

They went to Cyprus for their honeymoon and stayed in a villa in the middle of an orange grove with wonderful views of the sea. They dived together and went to clubs and ate out and read and swam in the pool. They lay on the marble tiles on cushions and read trashy books and made love for hours all over the house. To Fleur it was perfect. It was exactly what she wanted; just her and David in the middle of nowhere. She had not had him on her own for months.

He suddenly announced that he had arranged a surprise for the second week because it was her birthday. They shut up the villa and drove up tortuous roads to the Troodos Mountains. As they climbed the air grew cooler until they reached an isolated farmhouse perched on the edge of a mountain with breathtaking views looking out over fir forests.

There were two cars parked outside and David made Fleur close her eyes while he led her indoors. When she opened them in a large, empty room a table had been spread with food and there was a huge cake and balloons. The door burst open and Sam and Angie burst in shrieking,

‘Happy birthday, Fleury!’

They had been closely followed by Laura and Peter. Her mother beaming, her father, who had been overruled, very unsure this was what Fleur wanted for her nineteenth birthday.

The smile had frozen on Fleur’s face, then she had turned and seen David’s happiness at surprising her and had hastily acted out a cry of astonished delight. She had escaped to go and shower and change and she had howled silently in the bathroom with disappointment. Honeymoons were for two, even if it was her birthday.