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‘Why not?’

‘Well, to start with, I picked this place because of the grounds. We have to at least go for a walk, and we’ve got a reservation for dinner at eight too.’

‘Fine,’ Daisy said, leaning forward in the water, as if she was going to kiss Theo, only to splash water at him instead.

‘Hey! You know I’m not going to let you get away with that, right?’

A moment later, he was chasing Daisy around the pool. The pair laughed and shrieked as they continued to splash about, ducking and diving beneath the water, until eventually Theo caught up with her, scooped her into his arms and kissed her passionately on the lips.

‘You know, I don’t think today could get any better,’ Daisy said when they finally broke apart.

‘I know what you mean,’ Theo replied. ‘Although you’re only saying that because you haven’t seen the maze yet.’

‘There’s a maze?’

‘There is. There’s a maze, peacocks, a lake with swans and geese and even a little church. I thought there were lots of opportunities for photos here, so when we get back to Wildflower Lock, you could do some paintings of the place.’

Daisy looked back at Theo, even more stunned than she had been at the discovery of the maze. ‘You chose this place so there would be lots of things for me to paint?’

‘Is that all right?’

‘It’s better than all right,’ she said. ‘It’s absolutely perfect.’

With her heart the fullest it had ever been, she pushed up on her toes as if she was about to kiss Theo, only when their lips were less than an inch apart, she flung her hands through the water and splashed him once again.

‘Last one out of the maze is the loser!’ she yelled, bolting for the steps out of the pool.

48

As it happened, they left the maze at exactly the same time. By the time they had showered and dressed, they left the hotel building together, although Daisy didn’t let up, racing Theo all the way to the twists and turns of hedgerow which were situated towards a large lake, not even stopping to look at the peacocks. After all, she figured they would still be there when she came back out. But despite a slight head start, a couple of wrong turns meant she and Theo were quickly reunited, at which point they continued to make their way through together.

‘I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a maze before,’ Theo said as they reached the centre.

Unlike the outside, which had been solely green, the prize for reaching the centre was an explosion of colour. A large fountain, covered in blue and white mosaics, glinted in the afternoon sun, while butterflies flittered between the bright-purple buddleia bushes and vibrant red and yellow roses.

‘You must have been in a maze before,’ Daisy said in disbelief as she took a seat on one of the benches. ‘Surely you visited one when you were a child?’

‘I guess so. Probably. But I don’t remember it. I like that, though. I like that the first time I’ll ever remember going through a maze was with you. This weekend. It makes it feel even more special.’

As he gazed at Daisy, she could feel the love in his eyes so fiercely that it burned in her heart. It seemed ridiculous that less than a day ago, she had been questioning whether they should be together.

‘It feels a bit like a metaphor for our relationship, don’t you think?’ Daisy said.

‘Why’s that?’

‘You know, it may have taken us one or two wrong turns but we know that if we keep going through it together, we’ll always find our way out.’

The more she spoke, the more she realised how true the words felt to her, yet as she finished, she found Theo staring at her with a pinched brow.

‘What, what is it? Did I say something ridiculous? I did, didn’t I?’ Daisy could feel a flush of embarrassment colour her cheeks. ‘Ignore what I said.’

Theo shook his head. ‘No, you’re completely right,’ he said. ‘It’s not ridiculous at all. It’s a maze. Life’s a maze. The only thing is, I don’t think it matters whether we make our way out of it. All that matters is that if we are stuck in it, we are stuck together.’

Daisy had lost count of the number of times she had felt her cheeks aching with a smile that day, and yet once again, there was nothing she could do to stop it.

‘You are so soppy, you know that right?’

‘Only with you.’