David swallowed hard. Yes, it was him all right. He’d recognise him anywhere. The thief. The one that had ensured his wife-to-be had been turned out of her home. He had never been fond of Ben, even before he had stolen from Sunday. He could remember when he had first started to visit Kathy at Treetops how unwelcome Ben had always made him feel. But he mustn’t allow personal feelings to affect his duty so he told the young corporal behind him, ‘Go and tell the sister I shall be admitting him then arranging that he be shipped home, unfit for duty.’ At least he wasn’t lying there. From the looks of him he wouldn’t even be able to look after himself, let alone the horses. In this state he was neither use nor ornament.

Twenty minutes later Ben was lying in a hospital bed in a ward reserved for the men who were suffering from the same condition as him. Unfortunately, it could be some time before he was returned home for the physically maimed and injured had priority over the men suffering with mental breakdowns.

David visited him over the next couple of days as often as he could and although Ben was still far from well, with rest he did seem to recover slightly, to the point that he could answer questions and speak.

‘Don’t you remember me?’ David asked one day and Ben stared at him curiously. ‘We’ve met before.’

‘When?’

‘I’m a friend of Kathy Branning’s.’ David hesitated. ‘In fact, she’s my fiancée.’

Ben’s eyes stretched wide. ‘You’re engaged to Kathy?’

‘I most certainly am,’ David told him proudly. ‘And as soon as this damn war is over, we’re going to be married and I’m going to adopt her twins.’

‘Kathy has twins!’ Ben gasped.

‘She does, and they’re the most delightful, mischievous children you could ever wish to meet,’ David said fondly.

‘And how old are they?’ Ben forced himself to ask.

‘Hmm …’ David had to think. ‘They were four on the twenty-eighth of last month, I believe. They’ve just started school, as it happens. They agreed to take them a little early so that Kathy could get back to nursing.’

Ben closed his eyes and groaned deep in his throat. The children couldn’t be this doctor’s if he was speaking of adopting them and to his knowledge Kathy hadn’t had a boyfriend, apart from himself before he left so … No! His head wagged from side to side in denial. Surely Kathy couldn’t have been pregnant when he left? But then as he groggily tried to work out the dates everything fitted together. The children must be his, but why hadn’t she told him that she was with child?