Her heart thumping in her chest, Roz nodded. She didn’t have much choice when it came down to it, and she could hardly leave Felix at the station, not when he’d come all this way. She turned to Mabel. ‘Are you going to do the driving?’

Mabel’s smile said it all. Getting onto the seat behind Zeus’s ample behind, she waited for Roz to join her, whilst Howell rooted around for something underneath the driving seat, appearing a few moments later with a thick woollen blanket which he placed over the girls’ knees. ‘That’ll keep you warm.’ He walked over to the farmyard gate and, kicking it free from snow whenever it got stuck, he eventually pulled it wide open and grinned at them. ‘Off you go.’

Mabel clicked her tongue as Howell had instructed, and just as he had said, Zeus plodded slowly forward. Waving goodbye over their shoulders, the girls snuggled together as fresh snow began to fall.

‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ Roz breathed as they listened to the crump, crump, crump of Zeus’s hooves in the thick snow, mixed with the gentle jingle of the bells.

Mabel nodded dreamily. ‘I wish my folks could see me now. This is even better than Coconut.’

Roz gave her friend a reproving glance. ‘Poor Coconut, it’s not his fault he’s stuck working down the docks.’

Just as Howell had said, there was only one road all the way to the station, and Zeus didn’t stop walking until they arrived some thirty minutes later and saw Felix waiting under the shelter of the station roof.

He waved a greeting as he approached the sledge. ‘Well! Talk about arriving in style!’

Roz jumped down to greet him and gave a small squeal of delight as he whisked her up into his arms, before setting her back down. As their eyes locked, they both instinctively leaned in to a kiss. Feeling the warmth from his lips and smelling the familiar scent of the aftershave she had bought him last Christmas, it seemed to Roz that once again all was well with the world. Hearing a small cough behind them, Roz pulled away with an embarrassed giggle. Holding Felix’s hand tightly in her own, she looked up at Mabel. ‘Sorry, I think we got caught up in the moment.’

‘So I see!’ said Mabel, who was grinning broadly. ‘And whilst I understand you needing to say hello, it’s sodding freezing sitting up here on me tod.’

Felix threw his kitbag onto the floor of the sledge and helped Roz up before joining her.

‘If we all snuggle under the blanket we’ll soon get warm,’ suggested Roz.

Mabel turned the horse around with ease, and they set off on the journey home.

As Zeus settled into his methodical gait, Roz told Felix about the farm, and their new lives as land girls, whilst Mabel told him all about Gethin, his life in the RAF and their relationship.