Poppy gently smoothed one of the lace roses on Cadi’s dress. ‘Your mam’s so talented, this is much better than a new dress, I don’t know why you ever thought people would poke fun.’

Cadi touched a couple of unruly curls which had escaped their pins and were now hanging just above her jawline. ‘You know what my hair can be like, half the time I look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. No matter how hard I try to make my curls behave they have a life of their own, and you know as well as I, that keeping anything nice in a house with four miners is practically impossible. Knowing my luck I’m surprised I didn’t wake up with a face full of pimples!’

Poppy gave her friend a wry smile. ‘Honestly Cadi, I’ve never seen so much as a blemish on them fair cheeks of yours, never mind a pimple!’

‘Like I say, it’d be just my luck. Besides, we all know that if summat’s going to go wrong, it’ll be me that gets it in the neck.’

Poppy furrowed her brow in confusion, until the penny dropped. ‘You’re not still harping on about Aled Davies are you?’

Cadi folded her arms across her chest. ‘Yes, I jolly well am! That boy tried to run me over in his honking great tractor, and it’s not the first time he’s tried to hurt me neither. Remember when he pulled the chair away, just as I was about to sit down?’ She rubbed her back as she recalled the incident.

Poppy hid her smile behind the palm of her hand. Aled Davies was the son of the local farmer and he was considered by most to be quite the catch. Cadi however, had him down as being a bighead who believed himself better than everyone else, something which she now affirmed.

‘I’m glad he’s not bothered coming today, because he’d probably do something to ruin it for me.’ She fell into quiet contemplation before adding, ‘although I can hardly say I’m surprised. It wouldn’t exactly sit well with him, seeing someone else getting all the attention.’

Poppy gave a shrewd smile. ‘I really believe he didn’t know you were about to sit down when he took that chair away, he wasn’t even looking in your direction, just like when he drove past with the tractor.’

‘Poppycock!’ snapped Cadi irritably. ‘That boy knows exactly what he’s doing, he just feigns ignorance so that he can pretend it was an accident …’