Then, Fleur found she was pregnant. It was a bit soon, but to her surprise David was over the moon and a preoccupation with her desirability gave way, for a time, to morning sickness.

Then she started bleeding and was rushed to hospital. They found she was having twins and she was ordered to take three weeks’ bed rest in the military hospital with a terrifying army sister who bellowed, Wife of Captain Montrose – but never Fleur’s name.

After two weeks she could bear it no longer, and David, who was on exercise in Norway, came home and sprung her from the maternity ward one afternoon against orders, and his mother came down to make sure she rested for one more week.

David managed to send her a postcard every day he was away. She found out later that he had written most of them in advance and left them in Oslo for the Norwegian wife of a colleague to post to her each day.

When the twins started moving inside her, David would bend his head to her stomach to feel the movements, and Fleur would sigh and run her fingers through his hair, terrified at her absolute happiness.

She resembled a small whale and the twins came a month early in Tidworth Military Hospital in the early hours of the midsummer solstice and were put straight into two incubators. David was smitten from the first moment he saw them. He was on leave and spent hours sitting with Fleur watching his tiny babies. Nikki weighed just under 4 lbs and Saffie 3 lbs 2oz.

When she was able to come home with the twins, David had to leave for six weeks’ flying in Germany. Both their mothers swooped down to help Fleur, who felt frightened and helpless and exhausted most of the time.

When David returned he could not believe how big the twins had grown. He stared down at the two little identical faces in wonder.

‘How are we going to tell them apart, Fleury?’ he exclaimed. ‘Two sweet little peas out of the same pod! My God, aren’t we clever?’ ‘Incredibly clever!’

He sat on the bed, grinning at her. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you. You’re going to like it.’ ‘What? What?’

David bent and kissed her mouth. ‘I’ve just had my next posting.’

‘Quick, tell me!’

‘Singapore! As part of the ANZUK force out there!’

Fleur squealed and clapped her hands to her mouth in delight, then threw her arms around him.

‘It won’t be until early next year,’ David said.

‘We’re just too lucky,’ Fleur said, feeling overwhelmed by good fortune. They turned to look at the two babies side by side in their cots.

‘It will be like taking our little peapods home, won’t it?’ David said. ‘Back to the place where we met; to the place where you grew up. I don’t suppose we’ll ever get another Far East posting. We must enjoy every minute, darling; every single minute.’

Fleur sighed, threw herself on the bed and closed her eyes, already feeling the hot wind blowing in from the Malacca Straits. Already seeing a vivid Singapore sky turning orange and black before a blood red sun slipped below the horizon, turning the world abruptly and startlingly black.