‘So what will happen now?’ Sunday asked in a wobbly voice.

‘Recruitment centres are springing up all over the country – no doubt there will be one in Nuneaton too – and all young men are being encouraged to join to go and fight for their King and Country. I should tell you that I have just spoken to Ben and he has told me that he intends to enrol this very day.’

‘Oh no! Surely not.’ Tears sprang to Sunday’s eyes. Now, too late, she realised how estranged they had become since they had learned about his birth mother and the fact that her own husband was his father. None of it was Ben’s fault, and yet she had treated him abominably, holding him at arm’s length and denying him the affection he had always known. No wonder he wanted to enlist.

‘But he’s too young to go off fighting a war,’ she objected. ‘Perhaps we can encourage him to change his mind?’ She stared at Tom hopefully but he shook his head.

‘His mind is made up. And I should also tell you that I intend to enlist too.’

Sunday clutched at the back of a chair as her head wagged from side to side. ‘B-but your leg! Surely you are not well enough to fight.’

He shrugged. ‘There are many people involved in fighting a war apart from those who go to the front. They need stretcher-bearers and men to care for the horses. I could do either of those jobs.’

‘But I don’t want you to go! I need you here!’

He gave her a sad smile. ‘We both know that you haven’t needed me for some time,’ he said, but there was no recrimination in his voice, only hurt. ‘I think the time apart might do us both good. The way we have been living isn’t natural for a man and wife.’

‘And that’s all my fault,’ she wept. ‘Oh, Tom, I so wanted to bear your child and then when I heard that Ben was yours and that some other woman had given you what I was unable to, I couldn’t bear it.’

He sighed. There had been so much pain, so much sadness. ‘Somewhere along the way I think you lost sight of the fact that the only one I ever really wanted was you. A child would have been a bonus but it never affected my feelings for you. The trouble is, I don’t know if we can ever go back to the way we were now.’

She wanted to rant and rave, to throw herself at him and plead with him not to leave and yet somehow, she knew that he would not change his mind. And so she simply stood there as the only man she had ever loved quietly left the room, closing the door behind him.

When Ben and Tom drove into town they found queues of young men standing outside the hastily improvised recruitment office in the town centre. There was almost a party atmosphere amongst them, as if they were going off on some big adventure. ‘After all,’ Tom heard one young chap say, ‘they reckon it will be all over in no time so we’d best get in while the goin’s good.’