At that moment he opened his eyes and saw hers fixed on him alarmingly near. Their eyes locked. Fleur held her courage and his gaze. The moment was thick with intent. Then, David slowly grinned, reached out with his finger to touch her nose and sat up, yawning.

The light was changing over the sea, less harsh, turning mellow and golden, lighting up the water in little sparks. People were swimming to cool down, splashing each other and calling out. Peter and Sam were preparing to dive again. Fleur watched her father pulling on diving gear. Laura was nowhere to be seen.

David turned to her. ‘Going into the water?’

Fleur nodded and they stood up together and ran over the hot sand into the clear, translucent sea.

They swam out and then lay on their backs in the water, soporific and happy. Around them little clumps of swimmers and couples paired off in the late afternoon, not wanting the day to end, lying close on beach mats, huddled sleepily in the shallows on their stomachs.

‘I can’t believe I won’t be flying out or coming here ever again,’ Fleur said. ‘I can’t believe that next Easter and the long summer will be spent in Aldershot.’

David swam towards her. He laughed at her solemn face. ‘By this time next year you will have moved on, Fleur. You’ll be worrying about A-level results and your end-of-term show. You’ll have boyfriends milling around you and a whole exciting, unknown life stretching ahead. Maybe you’ll come back one day and revisit Mersing with friends…This, now…these days in Singapore will fade into a lovely dream. They’ll never leave you, but maybe they won’t seem quite real.’

Fleur trod water facing him. ‘They’ll seem more real than any other part of my life,’ she said vehemently. ‘Sam and I won’t see you for months. You can say all that because you’re not leaving yet and you know you might be posted back here one day…At times like this I hate being an army family and having to pack up and begin all over again with new friends. I long to be one of those boring families who live in one place with the same set of friends from kindergarten to university…’

‘Rubbish! Of course you don’t!’

He pulled her towards him to hug her, her face was so suddenly forlorn, and they trod water together and nearly sank. Laughing, they both swam in until their feet could touch the bottom. In shallower water Fleur turned and held on to his arms.

‘David? I don’t know if I want to take A levels. I don’t even know if I want to go on dancing either. Laura would have a fit if she could hear me.’

‘She certainly would!’ David held on to her waist lightly. ‘What do you want to do with your life, then, Fleury?’

Fleur looked him straight in the eyes and twined her legs around his waist under the water. ‘I want to marry you and have your babies.’