Of late, it was becoming increasingly hard not to betray himself when he was in her presence though, and he often wondered if Rose had an inkling of his feelings. On the whole he thought not. As far as she was concerned he was simply her husband’s lifelong pal and that was that. Sometimes he had the feeling she didn’t see him as a man at all, which was the hardest thing to bear. He was used to lassies responding to him with giggles and shy, uncertain smiles, even the married ones, but Rose had never been like that. He couldn’t make her out – he had never been able to – and it excited him as much as it frustrated him.

He was glad when they reached their place of work, even though the climb up the staging to reach the top saddle tank was more difficult in the snowy weather. It was a tremendous height and there were no safety nets, but he was used to that. Heights had never bothered him and even if they had he would have had to get used to this side of the job pretty fast. It was piecework at the shipyard – you were paid by how much you did – and he, like most of the men, was more concerned with earning a good living wage than the conditions he worked in. All the individual trades looked after their own interests and were fiercely parochial, but it had always been that way, and as a welder he could make better money than average which was all he cared about.

The noise was in full throttle again and when they reached the tank David and Nathaniel began work immediately. It was just the two of them inside it – they usually worked together if they could – and they had only resumed welding for five minutes or so when it happened. The wooden manhole cover on which David was standing cracked and broke, and before he could jump clear he’d partly fallen through and was clinging on to the rim, his torso and legs dangling over the drop to the bottom tank some seventy feet below.

Instinctively, Nathaniel dropped to his knees and stretched out, grabbing David’s hands at the wrists as he stared into his friend’s terrified eyes.

Nathaniel was tall at over six foot, and well-muscled, weighing considerably more than his friend. They both knew he could pull David up and through the hole to safety. David’s face was already expressing his relief when an image of Rose flashed across the screen of Nathaniel’s mind, causing him to freeze. He hesitated for a split second.