‘Sorry, sir. No beef. You’ll have to make do with cheese.’
‘Cheese is fine.’
‘Then I’ll be back, sir, in ten minutes. Oh, and the adjutant’s compliments, and will you see him in his office at nine sharp in the morning?’
Keth bit into the sandwich, realizing how hungry he was and how surprisingly good the cheese tasted.
He kicked off his shoes then lay back on his bed. Even though the telephone mocked him, he knew there would be some way to speak to Daisy, tell her he loved her and that soon they would be married.
Darling, he sent his thoughts high and wide, I love you, love you, love you – and I’m home!
Drew and Kitty walked hand in hand beneath the linden trees.
‘I’m so happy,’ she sighed. ‘Everything is so perfect that sometimes I worry.’
‘Worry, when we’ll soon be married and you’ll be mistress of Rowangarth and we’ll live happily ever after?’
‘I’d rather be your mistress, but I suppose I am, really.’
‘No. You’re my lover,’ Drew smiled. ‘Are you truly happy about us, Kitty?’
‘Truly, truly happy. I don’t want to come down off my lovely pink cloud.’
‘You’ll have to, to marry me – and that’s another thing. When?’
‘Look, let’s sit down.’ She linked his arm, then entwined his fingers in hers, sitting on the stone seat at the side of the walk. ‘All this – you, me, meeting and loving, Rowangarth on a September afternoon – even the war can’t spoil it. It’s our own special world and no one has ever loved as we love, nor ever will. I love you and I’m in love with you. I’m so devastatingly happy that I want this gorgeous madness to go on for ever – can you understand, Drew?’
‘Of course. It’s the same for me too. But I want us to be married.’
‘We are married. We met on a scruffy dockside in a bombed city and all at once every light in Liverpool blazed brightly and I felt dizzy, and oh, Drew, I’ll never be able to tell you how wonderful it was, that first loving. That was when we were married, don’t you see? That very night we slept together. We’ve even got same names – Drew and Kitty Sutton.’
‘I want you to be Lady Sutton. I want Uncle Nathan to marry us. I want you to have my – our – children.’
‘And we will be married, of course we will, and we’ll have kids – four, at least. But, darling, I want this unbelievable happiness to last a little longer. Let me get used to being in love?’
‘And if I’m sent foreign – what then?’
‘Then we’ll get married on your embarkation leave, though wouldn’t it be just marvellous if Mom and Pop could be there? Oh, she’s delighted about us. She always knew my English half would get the upper hand and I’d marry an Englishman. I think she even secretly hoped it would be you, darling. So let me wallow deep in my pink cloud – just for a little longer? Let me stay starry-eyed – please?’
‘Kitty Sutton, you always speak in superlatives! You always did. To you, everything must be larger than life – even being in love.’
‘And you, my darling, are dour and sensible and you’re still reeling from the shock of being bowled over by my glittering personality. So why don’t you come and join me on my pink cloud? I stayed awake ages last night, thinking you might knock.’
‘Yes, and I lay there for ages, wanting to come to you.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Don’t know. Suppose I dropped off, eventually …’
‘No, you wanted to sleep with me, but when you think about it, darling, it wouldn’t have been right – not here, at Rowangarth.’
‘Me creeping along the passage, you mean, like we were using Rowangarth for a dirty weekend?’
‘Mm. We’d get caught, anyway …’
‘Yes. Those boards creak something awful in the upstairs passage.’
They began to laugh, then agreed that not for anything would they sleep together at Rowangarth until they were married. Any place else – every place else – but not Rowangarth.
‘When we get back to Liverpool,’ Kitty whispered, ‘will you have to go back on board right away?’
‘No. I’ll just report to the quartermaster, then push off to the Adelphi, I suppose. Shall you come with me, darling?’
‘We could spend the night at my digs. Ma won’t mind.’
‘The Adelphi would be better and I could sign the register Andrew and Kathryn Sutton without so much as a blush.’
‘And I’ll twist my ring round on my finger so it looks like a wedding ring and then everybody’ll be happy! And we’ve got to be together every minute we can, because you never know the day I’ll get sent to London. I’ve been expecting it for a while now.’
‘I’ll hate it if you go.’
‘Yes, but had you thought – I could lodge with Sparrow and it would be just great sharing the spare room with Tatty. Do you suppose Aunt Julia would let me?’
‘Sure of it. And I know Sparrow would like it too. But don’t let’s talk about you being sent away, Kitty – not till it happens?’
‘Okay. And when – if – it does, we’ll think about Daisy and Keth who are miles apart. At least you and I will be able to ring each other. We’ll have to do what your gran did; count our blessings and oh, Drew, wouldn’t she have been pleased about you and me? Didn’t she always just love a wedding?’
‘Mm. If I’m at sea, darling, will you phone Mother when it’s the first anniversary of her death next month?’
‘I will – word of a Sutton. And my bottom’s getting cold on this seat; let’s skip afternoon tea and go for a walk? Let’s go to the top of the pike so I can say hullo to Pendenys. And, darling, when we’re married and the war is over, will Uncle Nathan and Aunt Julia go to live there? Well, it’s his now, or will be when the military gives it back.’
‘Mother will only go there under protest. She doesn’t like Pendenys. Well, who would when they’ve lived all their lives at Rowangarth? But we’ll worry about that when the war is over and the Army gives it back.’
‘I’m surprised the soldiers are still there. I’d have thought Grandmother Clementina would’ve haunted them out of it ages ago.’
‘Kitty Sutton, I’m surprised at you! You’re getting as bad as the locals. It isn’t haunted. It’s just that the army lot are so secretive about what goes on there and it makes it sort of mysterious.’
‘What d’you think they’re really doing there? Spying? Cloak-and-dagger?’
‘Can’t make up my mind. There’s all sorts going on that most people don’t know a thing about. I’m sure Keth’s a part of something like that. He’s so vague when you ask him what he’s doing.’
‘Yes, well whatever it is he’s doing it in Washington, which is rotten luck for Daisy.’
She held out her hand and they began to run; across the lawn and the wild garden and over the stile, into the wood. And when they had passed Keeper’s Cottage and were hidden in the deeps of Brattocks Wood, they kissed long and hard.
‘I love you, darling,’ he whispered. ‘Have I ever told you?’
‘Not in Brattocks, you haven’t. So kiss me again and then we’ll climb to the top of the pike and you can tell me there that