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that would have to wait until the war was over, of course. And perhaps it might not be necessary; maybe the unpleasant and sometimes dangerous conditions that the Land Girls were experiencing would take their toll. Only last week the newspapers had been full of the death of a Land Girl who had fallen into a threshing machine; and the month before there had been a report that, apart from the perils of working machinery they weren’t built for, the girls had to dodge the danger of bombs being unloaded by German aircraft as the planes made their way home after a city raid.
    Clarissa’s pale-blue eyes narrowed as Theobald rose ponderously to his feet, and she mentally braced herself for what was to come, stifling a sigh. A couple of hours more and they could be on their way, and it couldn’t come a minute too soon.
    ‘So, Mrs Wynford-Grant, how does it feel to be a wife?’ Montgomery smiled at his bride as he drove his little sports car – a twenty-first present from his parents some years before – along the country lane leading from the estate, where their guests had just waved the happy couple off minutes before. It was approaching twilight, and the towering elms and oaks cast faint shadows over the leaf-bound lane, the air heavy with the perfume of eglantine, the wild briar, and the flowers without number that starred the verges.
    Esther smiled back at him, thinking it was hard to remember there was a war going on, on such a heavenly day. And it had been heavenly, all of it. And now they were man and wife. At last. She glanced down at the gold band next to her diamond engagement ring. It felt strangely heavy, but nice – very nice. Softly she said, ‘Stop the car a minute. I want you to kiss me, properly.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Monty grinned at her, pulling swiftly onto the grass verge and taking her into his arms even before the noise of the engine had died away. The kiss was fierce and urgent and never-ending, and they were both gasping when Monty raised his head. ‘You’re mine,’ he murmured, a note of wonder in his voice. ‘I’ve been terrified that something – I don’t know what, but something – would stop us becoming man and wife.’
    ‘Me too.’ But in her case, Esther thought, she knew exactly what she had been frightened of, and it wasn’t the war. Monty’s mother was the sort of woman who was capable of anything.
    ‘Really? You love me that much?’
    ‘You know I do.’ Smiling, she raised her hand to his face, feeling the stubble of his jaw under her fingers with a little thrill of pleasure. ‘Come for a walk,’ she said suddenly. ‘Just for a little while.’
    ‘Now?’ He looked at her in surprise. ‘But don’t you want to get to the hotel and settle in before it starts to get dark?’
    ‘We’ve bags of time.’ She reached up and kissed him. ‘And we haven’t had a chance to be together all day. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that’s how I feel. And it’s such a lovely evening. There’s the moor not far ahead. We could park and take a little walk, couldn’t we?’
    ‘Of course we could,’ he agreed, starting the engine while she snuggled into him, her head on his shoulder.
    They pulled off the road onto a thin dirt track when they reached the moor, parking the car on a small incline. The still air was scented with the sweetness of the dog-rose bushes at the edge of the track, and the sky echoed with the cries of swallows as they wheeled above the wild briar, skimming the air with graceful movements as they hawked hundreds of airborne insects.
    ‘This is lovely,’ Esther breathed, holding Monty’s hand as they wandered towards a fallen tree, whereupon he lifted her onto the warm trunk and then stood with his arm around her as they watched the peacock butterflies sunning themselves in the evening sun and then flitting from bloom to bloom seeking the nectar. ‘Just us, and no one else in the whole world.’
    ‘
You’re
lovely.’ His voice was thick and husky, and