Fourteen

They amble the long way home, hand-in-hand under the amber glow of the streetlights, winding through backstreets, but when they reach the door to their block, neither of them are ready to let go, so they walk back down to the river and sit on the footbridge, feet dangling over the edge.

"When did you first realise?" she asks suddenly, leaning her head against his shoulder.

He laughs, softly, quietly. "I would say the first day, I suppose. You came up the stairs with Sylvie and I don't know, it just happened. You?"

"I don't even know, really. A long time. Definitely since after…Sylvie was taken. It made me realise that people did care about me, because apart from my father, no-one really did."

"What was he like?"

"Boisterous. Loud. He was always throwing me up into the air and catching me again, or spinning me around. He always had time for us, my brother and I, he was always there during my teenage years, more than my mother, really. She was always 'at tea' with one of her friends or busy with her very posh job."

She looks up at him. "I guess you want to know how I ended up married to Elliott, don't you?"

"Yes, if you want to tell me."

"Dad had a lot of debts, but none of us actually realised it until after he died. It was so sudden, a heart-attack at the age of fifty-three and then he was gone, and Elliott Vincent was the person he owed the most money too. We couldn't pay it off without selling everything, so Elliott decided that he would be generous and let us off the hook…if I were to marry him."

"That sounds like something out of an Austen or Bronte book."

"It does, rather, doesn't it? He just wanted a pretty, biddable trophy wife to show off to the cameras and when I turned out to be anything but biddable, well, you know what happened."

They sit in silence that wraps comfortingly around them like a blanket. "You have your sisters, right?" she asks after a while.

"Yes. Aggie and Edme."

"What are they like?"

"Aggie's twenty-one. Last year of university. Studying Marine Biology. Edme's an archaeologist."

"You've gone quite separate routes, haven't you?"

"Yes, we have. What did your brother end up doing?"

Kitty crinkles her nose. "Working in the City. I couldn't think of anything more boring, but he's happy because he's made for life. Incredibly rich, incredibly stuck-up sometimes, and I haven't spoken to him since I came here."

"What's he called?"

"George."

He leans down and kisses her again, wrapping his arms around her. She marvels at how, at last, a missing piece of her life has slotted into place like it's been there all along.

It's four o'clock in the morning by the time they get in, holding hands and climbing the stairs to their floor.

"Goodnight," he says. "Even though it's actually morning."

She smiles up at him. "I had a wonderful time. Thank you."

"It's no problem."

They kiss again, a slow, tender, sweet kiss that makes warmth burn in the pit of her stomach, and then part ways, going into their separate flats. He can't stop smiling as he tiptoes his way into the kitchen, pulling off his suit jacket and draping it over a chair.

"How was it?" Miles' voice is heavy with sleep, and Thomas glances up to see him standing in the doorway in his pyjamas.

"Did you wait up for me?"

"No. I woke up. You're grinning like an idiot, how was it?"

"Great, thank you."

"Tell me."

"I want to go to sleep."

"Tom, come on."

"Can't we do this in the morning?"

"No. Tell me."

"Fine. Kitty and I danced, I punched Yelland, we kissed. Is that alright?"

"You punched Yelland? You kissed her?"

"I'll explain it when I've had some sleep. Good night."

He makes his escape into the bedroom, shutting the door on Miles' protests and still thinking about the way Kitty's lips felt on his.

It's early in the morning when Flora's phone rings, shrill and insistent and she groans, rolling over to get it from her bedside table and wiping the sleep out of her eyes. She picks it up and holds it to her ear.

"G'morning Nancy."

"Flora, I've got some bad news."

Those words make Flora wake up like caffeine has just been injected into the crook of her arm.

"What? What's happened to Charlie?"

"He's…he's…" Nancy starts to cry, and Flora feels sick.

"What is it?"

"He's been caught in an attack out there. They can't tell me much, but he's in a critical condition and…"

"No," Flora says, one hand flying to the rise of her belly. Fingers are tightening around her heart. "No, that's not right, that's not right, no…"

"They're bringing him in to Glasgow because that's where his regiment was based. Can I come up and stay with you?"

"Yes, of course you can."

"Flora, he's alive. That's all we can think about now."

Then Nancy puts the phone down, Flora puts her head on her knees and begins to sob.

She sleeps until one in the afternoon, then gets up to go to the café to work on her cakes. Joan and Anton are both in the kitchen, sorting lunch for the patrons scattered around the little checked tables, and Kitty smiles in greeting, ties on her apron, gets her things out of the cupboard and starts to work.

This cake is a twenty-first birthday cake for Grace and Amar's niece, and she tries to focus on cutting the little shapes out of fondant, piping carefully in blue onto the smooth white icing, but all she can think about is last night, last night, the dancing, the talking, the kissing…

"You look happy this afternoon," Joan says at about three o'clock when business has died down a little. "Any particular reason?"

Kitty laughs. "No, yes, kind of."

"That's an interesting answer," Anton chips in from across the room. "No, yes, kind of."

"I had the ball."

"Oh, yes, the ball! I completely forgot about that. How was it?"

"Lovely. It was so nice."

"Is that all we're going to get?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Well, it must have been wonderful if you're smiling like this today. Can you make another two dozen cakes once you're done with that, they're honestly selling like nobody's business."

A/N I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry! I've been away again, and my original muse will not shut up and I know that's no excuse, but I'm really sorry for the late update. Just to let you know as well, I'm going to try and get this story finished by next week because then I go back into a very busy school life with loads of homework and whatnot, but yeah, I can't apologise enough for the late update. N xxx

P.S. Review!