Cissie then fetched him a small bowl of hot stew, thick with gravy and chunks of tender meat, and Sunday spoonfed it to him. There had been times when she had feared she would never see him again, but her husband was home, and now she was determined to get him well and fit again.

‘I love you and I’ve missed you so much,’ she whispered to him as she held another cup of hot sweet tea to his mouth.

‘I missed you too.’ And then with his belly full and a smile on his lips he sank into a deep and healing sleep. The only problem with getting him well again, Sunday thought to herself as she sat and watched over him, was that he would then be recalled to rejoin his unit. But she decided that she wouldn’t dwell on that for now. Christmas was just a whisper away and thanks be to God she would be sharing it with the man she loved.

Chapter Fifty

‘You’re going to spend Christmas with your family again?’ Kitty couldn’t hide her dismay from Richard, who had just told her of his plans.

‘Why wouldn’t I?’ he answered curtly.

She wanted to scream at him, Because I thought you would be spending it with me! But the words seemed to lodge in her throat.

‘I dare say you’ll be happy enough spending it with Ruby and Maggie,’ he said dismissively. He had been nowhere near as attentive to her of late and Kitty was beginning to wonder if their relationship was ever going anywhere. She knew that Maggie would be happy to see her away from Richard for good, but there was something about him that she found impossible to resist. He only had to crook his little finger and she came running. She only wished that she could have the same effect on him.

Suddenly tired of everything, she collected her bag and after walking to the door of the studio she told him, ‘I think I’ll go and get an early night. I have a headache coming on.’

He didn’t even look up from the newspaper he was reading but simply nodded. ‘As you wish. I’ll see you tomorrow before I leave for the family seat in the country.’

Kitty plodded through the hallway to the front door on feet that felt like lead. Why wasn’t he asking her to go with him? She knew that she was well spoken, Sunday had seen to that, so surely it couldn’t be because he was ashamed of her? But then she thought of the evenings she spent with Richard’s so-called friends and wondered if this was the reason why he wanted to keep her a secret. Now he had used her for his own purposes, she was no longer a desirable prospect.

She pushed the idea away as she stepped out into the chilly night to hail a cab. Richard didn’t even trouble himself to hail one for her and see her safely inside it – nor had he done so for some months, now that she came to think about it. She stood there shivering as a cab pulled up beside her. The weather was so cold that already her teeth were chattering and added to that it was raining, fine needle-sharp spits of rain that made her cheeks sting. The month before had been reported as the second coldest November on record and December hadn’t been much better. Kitty wondered briefly if they might have a white Christmas but she doubted it. The weather was too wet and cold for snow, and as she settled into the cab she found herself remembering the happy Christmases she had spent at Treetops with Sunday and Tom.