‘Hm, you could be right.’ Just then Sunday glanced towards the window and for a second she could have sworn she saw someone disappear round the edge of the stable block. She frowned. It couldn’t be George or Kathy. George had gone into town, Kathy was at the hospital and the children were playing at a friend’s house, so who could it be? She wandered outside on the pretext of needing some fresh air and cautiously began to look around, but her search revealed no one so eventually she returned to the kitchen thinking she had either imagined it or it had been a trick of the light.

That evening, long after their elders had gone to bed, Kathy and Livvy sat chatting in the kitchen.

‘So, we’ll be having a wedding when the war is over, and David comes home then?’ Livvy said teasingly.

‘The sooner the better,’ Kathy agreed. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t realise I had feelings for him long before, but I was just so busy bringing the twins up. But what about you and Giles?’

Livvy sighed and shrugged. ‘I shall have a lot of making up to do to him when he does come home,’ she admitted. ‘Just like you with David I couldn’t see what was right beneath my nose.’

‘But what will you do if he doesn’t come home?’ Kathy asked tentatively.

‘He will,’ Livvy answered with conviction. She had to believe it otherwise there was no reason for living.

‘Have either of you girls moved some straw in the stables?’ George asked the next morning when they had all gathered in the kitchen for a break.

Livvy and Kathy shook their heads. It was a Sunday and a rare day off for Kathy.

‘That’s strange.’ George removed his cap and scratched his head. ‘Now we’ve only got the two old nags I keep ’em at one end o’ the stable block an’ I keep the rest o’ the stalls cleaned out but today it looked almost as if someone had made a bed o’ straw in the end stall.’

‘A lot of people from Coventry and the surrounding towns that have been bombed are making their way further out into the country for safety,’ Sunday pointed out. ‘Perhaps it was someone who was looking for shelter for the night?’

‘It could’ve been,’ George admitted, and he dismissed the incident from his mind as they went on to talk of other things.

The following evening following a long shift at the hospital, Kathy was striding up the drive, keen to get out of the dark and the driving wind, when suddenly a dark figure loomed out of the trees ahead of her and her heart leapt into her throat.

‘Who’s there?’ she asked loudly as she narrowed her eyes and peered into the gloom, her heart racing.

‘It’s me.’