‘You mean you’ve got the house to yourself?’ Tilly asked as she followed him into hall.
Ian employed a cleaner to keep the place tidy but it lacked the well-polished special look that her own home had, that touch that came from a home having a woman in charge who loved it, she recognised. When she and Drew had their own home she would keep it every bit as spick and span as her mother kept number 13. Their own home … The thought of having the right to share a house with Drew as his wife brought the now familiar surge of giddy excitement and anticipation mixed with urgency.
‘Yes,’ Drew confirmed, ‘and that being the case, we had better not stay here for very long. I’ll bet that Nancy is keeping a watch out. You know what she’s like, and your mom will have something to say if she thinks I’m breaking the rules.’
Tilly pulled a face. ‘Nancy’s so nosy. Anyway, we’ve got a perfectly legitimate reason for being here.’
‘You mean these,’ Drew asked her, reaching for the carefully wrapped box of chocolates he’d left on the kitchen table.
‘No, I mean this,’ Tilly told him, sliding her arms round him and raising her face to his for a kiss.
‘That is not a perfectly legitimate reason,’ Drew told her several minutes later, his voice thick with emotion as he finally stopped kissing her.
‘Don’t talk,’ Tilly whispered to him, placing her fingers against his lips. ‘Just kiss me again instead, Drew.’
‘Tilly …’ he began to protest, but Tilly silenced him in the most effective way she could, kissing him again with passionate intensity.
The only thing that Drew had told her about their special Valentine’s evening out had been that she should wear the lovely dress she had worn on New Year’s Eve, which Tilly knew must mean that he was taking her out dancing. Now, as she pressed herself closer to him, the rich plum-coloured silk velvet shimmered in the hall light as their bodies moved closer together and Tilly wound her arms tightly around Drew’s neck.
‘I want to stay here – with you – just the two of us … together,’ she told him fiercely.
Drew shook his head. ‘You know we can’t do that.’
‘I thought you loved me,’ Tilly protested.
‘I do,’ Drew assured her, ‘but you know what I promised your mom, Tilly. What we both promised her. Don’t look like that,’ he coaxed her, adding firmly, ‘Wait here. I’ve got something special to show you.’
As he released her and turned away to start to climb the stairs, Tilly made to follow him but Drew shook his head and told her firmly ‘No, Tilly. You must wait down here. Otherwise, I’m not going to show you.’
He meant it, Tilly could tell.
Reluctantly she stood in the hallway and watched as he bounded up the stairs two at a time. She heard a door open and then close. Drew’s bedroom door. Her heart turned over and then started to race. She looked at the stairs. If she followed him up to that room; if she kissed him as she had done before, then …
Then it wouldn’t be fair to Drew, she warned herself. Because he had promised her mother, and she loved him too much to want to make him break that promise, knowing how badly he would feel about it if he did.
The bedroom door opened and then closed again, and then Drew was coming downstairs toward her carrying a sheaf of typed papers.
‘I’ve started writing the book,’ he told her, shaking his head when she reached out to take the pages from him. ‘No, I’m not going to let you read it – not yet.’
‘When did you start? You never said anything.’
‘The night we went to see St Paul’s.’
Silently they looked at one another and Tilly knew that he too was remembering how close she had come to losing her life.
She stretched out her hand towards him and Drew took it, wrapping his large hand around her small one, making her feel safe and protected, and loved just as he had done then.
‘I wasn’t going to say anything yet, because I’m not sure … well, I don’t know how you’ll feel about it, but it just feels so right, even though it’s not exactly what I planned.’ He looked away and then back at her. ‘It’s about us, Tilly, about you and me and our war as well as the people of London’s war – the brave ordinary people of London – and I’m writing it so that we’ll never forget. I never want to forget what our war has been like, just as I know that I shall never be able to forget that moment when I thought that I might lose you.’
‘You’re writing about us … about me? I’m going to be in a book? But I’m not important enough to be in a book.’
‘Yes, you are, Tilly. You are the most important person in the world to me.’
‘When can I read it?’
‘Not yet. Not until it’s finished.’
Tilly’s heart swelled with loving pride. She just knew that Drew’s book was going to be wonderful.
‘I’m going to take this back upstairs and then you and I are going to go out and enjoy our Valentine’s evening,’ Drew told her.
‘However lovely my treat is, Drew, it can’t make me any happier than you’ve already made me,’ Tilly told him.
When he came downstairs again, though, Tilly remembered that she had something else to tell him – a message from her mother.
‘Mum’s decided that she’s going to go ahead and set up this fire-watching team for Article Row. She wants to ask you and Ian to join the team.’
‘I can’t speak for Ian. I’ll tell him, though, of course, and needless to say I want to join. I think it’s really commendable of your mother to take this on, Tilly, but then she’s that kinda person, always wanting to help out where she can.’
‘I dare say she’ll rope in all of us at number 13. I can’t see Dulcie being keen, though. She’s already creating about having to do fire-watch duty at Selfridges. Oh, but you’ll never guess. The Misses Barker from number 12 got to hear about Mum’s plans – from Nancy, I suppose – and they’ve both said that they want to be involved.’ Tilly laughed. ‘That was definitely one in the eye for Nancy, although given their age I can’t imagine that Mum’s going to want them climbing on roofs or leaning out of attic windows so that they can spot falling incendiaries. They must both be in their sixties.’
Drew laughed too, but said, ‘No, but they will be able to help clear away any of the incendiaries that have fallen in the area. It will be team work that will keep Article Row safe, Tilly. Come on, we’d better make a move otherwise we’ll be late.’
‘Just one more kiss before we go?’ Tilly pleaded.
Not that she needed to plead very hard. She could see that from the look in Drew’s eyes.
Their train was predictably late in arriving at East Grinstead station. As George was meeting them at the station, Sally and Dulcie said their goodbyes to the others, who were all lodging within walking distance. As they queued to hand over their tickets to the waiting ticket inspector, Sally suspected that the majority of the passengers exiting the station had travelled to the small town to visit relatives at the hospital. With several young women amongst them, it looked as though there would be a reasonable number of partners for the men at Saturday night’s dance, which gave her all the more reason to regret that she had ever invited Dulcie to join her.
That feeling increased when they were still waiting for George fifteen minutes later, and Dulcie had complained about his tardiness for every one of those fifteen minutes. It didn’t help that it had started to rain, a fine miserable freezing drizzle that was slowly soaking through Sally’s knitted gloves.
‘If you was to