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‘Some were happy to just let me buy without, some said they’d ask for some of their other customers’ coupons. Then there were the really nice people who just gave us a couple of free scoops.’

The three of them sat down at the dining table and had more tea, plus the last small slices of the Dundee cake.

Harry admired the furniture and was impressed to hear Rose’s husband had made most of it.

‘I like carpentry too, but I’m certainly not at this standard,’ he said, running his hand over the silky surface of the sideboard.

That inspired Rose to show him the workshop, which he enthused about.

There were no awkward silences. Rose told him about her son and daughter-in-law in Canada and their glamorous lifestyle.

Harry in turn spoke of his aunt and uncle who had a farm on the outskirts of Bristol, and how he used to help out there, and ride too.

‘I wanted to go into the Horse Guards,’ he admitted, ‘but I suppose they only want the upper-crust types, so I went into the Engineers.’

‘More useful than posing on a horse,’ Rose said with a giggle. ‘The busbies must give the men a headache?’

‘But the uniform is gorgeous,’ Beth chimed in. ‘The red jackets, all that gold braid. Wonderful.’

The time flew by; suddenly it was five-thirty. Rose suggested Harry stay and take Beth out for a meal from there. It was agreed that was a very sensible idea, and Beth went upstairs to change.

‘Tell me, Mrs Cullen,’ Harry said when Beth was out of earshot, ‘Beth doesn’t say much about her past, and I’ve got a feeling some of it, until she came to work for you, was pretty awful. Tell me to mind my own business if you like. But I really like her, and I want to understand.’

Rose looked hard at his handsome, rugged face and saw a real man, kind, strong, dependable and honest. ‘Well, it wouldn’t be right for me to tell you things told me in confidence, but I can admit she had a pitiful childhood.

Yet full credit to her, she made her own rise in life by reading, observation, and having a very good heart to start with.

I love her as if she were my daughter. I’m proud of her achievements, and though she was knocked sideways by Jack’s death, she’s now planning the Christmas panto for the refugee children.

So look after her, Harry, she’s a diamond. ’

Harry took Beth to a restaurant in a hotel in Berkeley Square which he said he’d heard some very good reports of.

The reports were not exaggerated; the pigeon pie was excellent, with pastry that melted in the mouth.

And the dessert was crème br?lée, which neither of them had eaten before and they loved.

It was said the chef was French, and maybe that was why the food was so good.

The dining room was comfortable and softly lit.

Beth thought it was the nicest place she’d ever eaten in– not that she had much experience of restaurants– but perhaps it was just the company.

Harry was so easy to talk to and so very interesting, making her laugh about when, back in 1939, he was ordered to train newly enlisted men.

‘Britain had only a relatively small standing army then,’ he explained.

‘Most regulars were sent straight away to France. Others like me had to stay and train all the wet-behind-the-ears recruits. Mostly they didn’t have a clue.

You’ve never seen so many softies, hardly more than boys, office clerks, teachers and the like.

I thought they’d run the first time they heard a machine gun.

At least the farm-workers had some muscle and stamina.

’ He grimaced with presumably an unpleasant memory.

‘Then when we got to France, we had a very long march ahead of us. Some of the men hadn’t done what they were told to do to treat their new boots and their feet got in a terrible state. Blisters as big as a half crown.

‘It was something of a baptism of fire for most of the men, as we saw so many refugees fleeing the Germans with carts and prams laden with their belongings.

Their obvious terror gave my men a taste of what was to come up ahead.

And of course German planes flew low over us, firing willy-nilly, regardless of women, children and old people. It was hellish!

‘I was sent back home soon after to train more enlisted men. But they all surprised me, they got stuck into the training, even when they were almost crying with pain. I had some of these same recruits with me in the retreat to Dunkirk, and I can tell you, Beth, the ones I thought were the softest turned out to be the bravest. I was proud to have trained them.’

Beth saw his eyes glisten with unshed tears and guessed he lost a great many of them during the retreat.

He changed the subject then to ask about when she first went to Ireland.

Rather than tell him any lies which later on she might regret, she chose to make him laugh with a vivid description of the Bible-thumping Mrs Griffiths in her awful guest house in Fishguard, the nosiness of her new neighbours, and of getting knocked into the ditch by a passing tinker in a cart.

‘The next time I went to England I made sure I could get a train arriving and the ferry departing close together. I think I’d have sooner sat on a train platform overnight than stay with Mrs Griffiths again. ’

‘So did you make friends with any of the women?’ he asked.

‘A few to pass the time of day with,’ she said. ‘But I was aware I was a curiosity, a non-Catholic, no husband and possibly a threat. Kathleen who came to clean and housekeep was the nearest thing to a friend. I wanted to work at something but there was nothing. That’s why I came back to England.’

They left the hotel restaurant at about eight-thirty, and on an impulse Beth suggested they walk up Brandon Hill, the park just beyond Berkeley Square.

‘I’m sure you already know that by day it’s the best view over the city.

But there’s a full moon tonight so we might be able to see the River Avon, possibly right to the Bristol Channel. ’

‘It used to be one of my favourite places in summer when I was a boy,’ Harry said. ‘I used to feed the squirrels, and do roly-polies down the hill. But to see it in moonlight with you, well there are no words for that!’

Beth giggled. It was good to imagine him as a scruffy little boy in short trousers careering down the hill.

It was very dark under the trees leading up to Cabot Tower at the top, and she clung on tightly to Harry’s arm for fear of tripping on tree roots. But as they reached the top it was almost like daylight, the moon was so bright.

‘Gosh!’ Beth exclaimed. ‘You can see better than I imagined. The Avon looks like a silver ribbon and the Suspension Bridge like a glorious silver filigree necklace strung across it. I just hope the Germans don’t seize the opportunity to bomb here.’

‘I think the only real fight left in them now is with their U-boats, trying to sink the convoys of ships crossing the Atlantic bringing us foodstuffs, their attempt to starve us into submission.’

‘How are we doing in sinking them?’ Beth asked.

‘Let’s say our navy is doing its best,’ he said. ‘We won’t get told numbers until it’s all over. But don’t you worry your head about it. We’ve got Winston Churchill to do that.’

They sat on a bench and just looked out, able to pick out a few landmarks, but in the main it was a patchwork of what they knew were houses, darker spots that could be parks and open spaces, and here and there a church spire or a faint glow of light, possibly from a fire or police station.

‘Won’t it be lovely when the lights come on again?’ Beth said softly, leaning into his shoulder. ‘And all our soldiers, airmen and sailors come home. We never knew what we had, did we? Not until everything went bad.’

Harry put his arm around her and cuddled her still tighter. ‘That’s something most servicemen talk about,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard so many of my men claiming they’ll be better husbands and fathers if they are spared. The younger ones idealizing the girls they’ve left behind.’

‘What about you?’ she asked.

‘Well, I’m not a husband or father and I haven’t left a girl behind, not yet anyway.

But I did promise to myself to be kinder to my dad and mum.

I have carried a rosy little dream of a little house of my own, a wife and a couple of kids, with me throughout the war.

Just lately that dream has become bigger. ’

Her heart quickened at the mention of not leaving a girl behind as yet, and then the wife and a couple of kids. ‘More than a couple of children?’ she teased. ‘Or is it a bigger house?’

He put his free hand on her cheek and drew her closer. ‘The dream is you,’ he whispered and kissed her.

His lips were so soft and warm, his tongue flickering into her mouth making her insides contract with wanting.

She raised her free arm and put it round his neck, stroking the bare skin with her fingers.

The kiss went on and on, his hand went inside her coat, cupping her breast, and she lost complete touch with where they were, how cold it was, the time, and everything but wishing to stay in this bliss for ever.

It was Harry who broke away first. ‘I knew as soon as I met you that you were the one,’ he said softly into her ear.

‘When I left Hambleden House I was angry at myself for not asking where you lived, but that was because of Jack. I mooned about, wondering if I should just go back there and wait outside in the hopes of seeing you. But I knew the doctors and senior nurses wouldn’t approve of an ex-patient hanging around, so we’d both be in trouble.

Then the miracle happened, and I ran into you today in Clifton. ’

Somehow, she knew this wasn’t the moment to be coy. ‘I thought about you so often too,’ she admitted. ‘The day you left Hambleden House and kissed me, I walked home as if on air. But I felt so guilty, betraying Jack. I cast you out of my mind. I had to, didn’t I.’

‘I’m very glad I stayed lurking there in the depths, then,’ he said with little smile. ‘You greeted me joyously today– well, so it seemed to me.’

‘I was joyous, even more now,’ she said. ‘But maybe we should go back. It’s getting very cold.’

He got up and pulled her into his arms for another kiss. ‘I’d gladly die of cold as long as you were kissing me,’ he said.

Beth laughed. ‘I can’t imagine anything worse than you dying of cold in my arms. But there’s a tea dance at the Berkeley Centre tomorrow. Could we possibly go to that?’

He tucked her hand into his arm and clicked his heels together. ‘Your wish is my command, my lady.’