‘Reggie’s finally realised you’re not just another ship that passes in the night. He’s noticed how mad I am about you and given us his blessing. He always approved of you far more than he ever did of me. I’ll bet he thinks you’re just the sort of girl I need to settle me down and turn me into the pipe-smoking, watch chain-wearing pillar of the community he’s always wanted me to be. What do you think?’
‘That’s how Mary feels about it, I’m certain. I know she believes it’s long past time you were settled, and she’s very keen to reassure me you wouldn’t be such a dreadful husband in spite of appearances to the contrary.’
He laughed. ‘Glowing praise for her darling foster son.’
‘She thinks better of you than you probably deserve,’ Bobby said, raising an eyebrow in his direction.
‘I know she does.’ He glanced at her. ‘So you’ll have to marry me, won’t you? Reggie and Mary will be so disappointed if they can’t have you for a sister-in-law now that they’re counting on it.’
Bobby shook her head. ‘Remember our pact. No proposals allowed.’
‘I wasn’t proposing. Simply stating a fact.’
‘Sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t support your precious theory. It seems to me that Reg is far less interested in our love lives than he is inThe Tyke.’ She looked up at him. ‘If you ask me, this is a test.’
‘A test of what?’
‘Of whether I can spend the afternoon with you without letting you distract me from my work. He wants to see how committed I am.’
‘That does sound like Reggie,’ Charlie conceded. ‘He certainly thinks a lot more of that magazine than he does of his little brother.’
‘No he doesn’t. Not really. Reg is very proud of you, Charlie.’
‘Huh. If he is, he’s been hiding it well for the past twenty-six years.’
‘Honestly, I know he is. He’ll show you one day, wait and see.’
There was silence for a while as they walked on, both lost in their separate thoughts. Bobby chose her footsteps carefully as she dodged flat, slippery patches of limestone, jagged lichen-covered rocks that threatened to send her tumbling, and the treacherous peat bogs that were so well disguised by the heath you could easily lose a boot to one before you realised it was there. Charlie, of course, was a native and could navigate the moors almost without thinking. Nervous, half-wild sheep and their lambs skittered away in the wake of these peculiar two-legged creatures.
The abandoned shepherd’s hut that served as a landmark in an otherwise barren stretch of landscape was visible in the distance now: a little grey dot about two-thirds of the way up the face of Great Bowside. The ramshackle building was about three miles from the village and, while no longer employed for its original purpose, it was occasionally put to use as a shelter by hikers who found themselves caught on the mountain in dangerous weather conditions.
‘Have you ever been to the summit?’ Charlie asked, nodding to the impressive peak of Great Bowside.
Bobby shook her head. ‘No farther than the hut. It didn’t feel safe in the winter months, while there was still snow on the tops. I should like to make it up there now the cuckoo time is coming.’
‘I’ve been up and down this mountain a dozen times to tend to injured animals who’d got themselves stuck,’ Charlie said in a dreamy voice. ‘I hope the new assistant vet at Smeltham who’ll be covering my practice is a fit, active sort. You need to be to work land like this, but so many of the young vets and farmers have gone to war now that the old men left behind are struggling to cope.’ He glanced at Bobby. ‘Sorry. I know we agreed not to talk about the war until—’
‘—until we have to talk about it,’ Bobby finished for him. ‘Will you take me, before you go? To the summit, I mean.’
‘Yes, there ought to be plenty of daylight when double summertime begins next week. I’d like to see it again before I leave. The walk isn’t what I’d call a good time, but the view… you can see the whole dale from up there. It’s quite beautiful, especially at sunset.’
‘I should love to see it.’
‘I’d like to see it with you.’ He gave her waist a squeeze. ‘It’ll make it new for me again. Everything feels like the first time with you.’
She smiled. ‘That’s nice, Charlie.’
A few heavy drops of rain fell from a sky that was fast turning black. The wind was picking up and there was a faint smell of sulphur in the air. Bobby pulled her coat tighter around her.
‘Did you walk by the village green on your way to meet me?’ Charlie asked her.
‘No.Is there something happening there?’
He nodded. ‘It might be almost comical if it wasn’t so heartbreaking. The evacuees from London who’ve been shipped here are all there, being distributed to the families roped in as hosts.’
‘How many were there?’
‘Two dozen or so. This scary-looking WVS billeting officer had them all lined up outside, labels round their necks like unclaimed packages, while the village women browsed among them, picking out those they best liked the look of. It reminded me of when I was sent away to school. The children looked fair flayed wi’ it all, as our friend Mr Jessop might say.’ For once, Charlie seemed serious. ‘The faces on some of these kids, Bobby. Their eyes. It made me think of…’
