She and Livvy were Sunday’s little treasures. How would Sunday feel if he were to take her precious girl down? Ben wondered, his jealousy eating away at him. It would probably be them who inherited the house one day and the way he saw it, it wasn’t fair! He didn’t love Kathy, but he had been noticing for some time what an attractive young woman she had grown into and he was only a man after all! His bodily needs were usually satisfied by a certain lady who lived on the outskirts of the village but here was Kathy offering herself to him on a plate and what better way of getting revenge on his stepmother?

‘L-let me go, Ben,’ Kathy sniffed, deeply embarrassed now that she had declared her feelings. But if anything, his grip on her arm tightened, and she wished the ground would just open up and swallow her.

‘You do realise that I’m old enough to be your father, don’t you?’

She nodded as a solitary tear slid down her cheek. Then she lifted her chin defiantly. ‘So what if you are?’ She stared at him. ‘I find young men my own age boring and immature, if you must know.’

‘And what about these?’ He lifted his fingers to touch the scars on his face. ‘Most women would find me repulsive.’

She shook her head, making her beautiful hair dance on her shoulders. ‘No, no,’ she denied. ‘You’re … Well, they just make you look more … interesting. You’re actually very handsome.’ She had always thought of him as a hero and now without doubt he knew she would be like putty in his hands.

Tilting her chin with his free hand, he stared down into her flushed face and smiled as he suggested gently, ‘Shall we go up into the hayloft to talk?’ And it was as simple as that. She followed him meekly up the rickety ladder like a lamb to the slaughter.

When he silently undid the buttons on her dress she stood woodenly, her lips trembling and her face a mask of embarrassment, but she made no attempt to stop him. This was what she had always dreamed of. She could see his outline by the light of the moon that shone through the small, grimy window in the roof and when he began to hastily undress, she quickly looked away. As a nurse, she had seen many naked men, but this was entirely different.