He’d wait for the right moment and mention it to his parents over the next week or so, he told himself. It would take a great deal of organizing and financing to set up, but the need would only increase with hundreds of injured men being shipped home each month. It felt wrong to be living in such a beautiful environment when men who had fought for their country, the same as him, were suffering. He thought the family could live in one wing of the house and the rest of it could be modified accordingly. It was perfectly doable. After all, they had already shut up part of the house and closed down the labour-intensive and fuel-hungry garden greenhouses. That had been hard on old Stubbs, who still grieved for his precious hothouses and found it difficult to come to terms with the new order of things. He knew the old fellow used to spend many happy hours pottering about in them, especially in the cold winter months, while his under-gardeners saw to the outside work.

The changes had had to happen though, Alexander thought. They were part and parcel of the war effort, along with releasing more servants nationwide for ‘useful purposes’, as the government put it. All the younger staff apart from Jinny were gone now, just their elderly butler and valet and equally long-in-the-tooth housekeeper and cook remaining. With no kitchen maids on hand, their meals were simpler, and Rose assisted the cook in the kitchens most mornings, while Jinny helped the housekeeper when she wasn’t tied up with the twins. The butler and valet had adapted, albeit grudgingly, to doing a range of jobs that they’d have considered beneath them before the war, and his father’s beautiful motor car was rarely used unless William had to travel into Gateshead or Newcastle on business. They had the horse and trap and the larger carriage, which were perfectly adequate.

You had to adapt in life, that was the thing. Alexander nodded mentally to the thought. His arm was gone and his army life was finished, but he could still see and hear and move unaided, unlike some of the poor beggars who’d been shipped home alongside him. And he had Rose, his love, which was everything.

By the time the church hall doors were finally closed at just after six o’clock Alexander was exhausted and he looked it. Amy and Daisy insisted that they would do the clearing-up and Rose must take him home, and as Hammond was sitting outside in the horse and carriage, she didn’t argue.

It was a truly beautiful evening that greeted the three of them as they walked out of the hall. A soft warm May twilight was just beginning to steal across the sky and the smell of summer was in the air.