We'll meet again

"'Our savior,' he called it. 'Do you know, sir, we couldn't have got by without that? Makes you think." He would go and look at it every day and, as he left, blow it a kiss. There was an unsuspected sentimental streak in Buster's nature.

"I think he was on rather special terms with Marianne. He told me once that Marianne was 'a bit of all right." This was always accompanied by a wink. He was equally devoted to Lisette.

"There was something cozy about the atmosphere of the farmhouse, in spite of the danger which was lurking all through the days and nights.

"They used to get me to talk in the evenings when we sat in the dark.

Buster was always alert for noises which might suggest the arrival of unwelcome visitors. I told them about the Priory, the old monks who used to live here. I described the wild Cornish coast.

Lisette was enchanted. Her slight command of English made it possible for her to ask questions, and she would convey the answers to her mother. Buster would sit there listening, smiling on us all. He always regarded himself as the man of the house. I didn't qualify because of my wound. He was the one who would look after us all.

It was a strange set-up, but we all knew that it was transient and could disappear at any moment.

"Inevitably it came to an end. Marianne came in one day with the news that the British soldiers were only a few miles away. She took out a tattered tricoleur from one of the drawers, muttered fiercely over it, and hung it from one of the windows.

"Lisette told us: 'Her great-grandfather hung it there when the Germans came in 1870." The cloth was fluttering from the window when we left.

I said to Marianne: 'I do not know how to thank you.”

She began to speak rapidly and Lisette translated: “She is happy to have you here. It is her duty to France ... and she like you.”

"'We owe her our lives,” I said. “We shall not forget.”

"'When war is over, maybe you come back,” she said.

"Violetta, you will come back with me? I want to show it to you.”

"We shall go together," I said. "And what about Buster?”

"He will want to see it again, I daresay.

"The rest is predictable," he continued. "We joined the army which was getting closer every day. Buster thought they'd want him to stay but they sent us both home. We had been all that time in a prison camp and they thought we should both be checked. They set in motion the necessary arrangements and we left. Before we did so, the army doctor looked at my arm and did not much like what he saw. He said it needed attention long ago. When we arrived in England, Buster went his way and I went mine. I am to report to Poldown Hospital without delay.

So, here I am.”

"I still can't believe it.”

"Nor I. We'll go ahead with our plans, shall't we?”

"Oh yes, Jowan.”

"And the war can't last much longer. We must be near the end.

It will be as we planned it. We'll forget the years between.”

"We will.”

"You haven't thought of changing your mind?”

I laughed. "No. I always believed you would come back. I could not have borne it otherwise. Others thought you never would, but your grandmother and I went on believing.”

"And I believed you would be waiting for me. That belief helped me through. I used to recall details of those meetings we had. Do you remember the first time at Smithy's... all those years ago? And I thought of you, wondering... and there was no means of getting a word to you.”

"It is all over now. This wretched war has brought misery to millions.

One man's mad dream and a deluded nation following him!

Well, disaster is overtaking them now and we can only rejoice. But enough of that. Let's talk about ourselves.”

So we talked. He was not sure what his future would be; it might well be that he would rejoin his regiment.

"I wonder what happened to Buster," he said. "He must have been undernourished after those years in a prison camp, although his energy had not flagged in the least.”

"You must ask him to our wedding," I said.

"He would love that!" He looked blank, and went on: "Do you know, I haven't got his address. I could get in touch with him through the regiment, I suppose.”

"I should like to meet him.”

"He's a fine character. You'll be impressed.”

"He saved your life. That will be my main reason for liking him.”

And so we talked and planned.

Life was wonderful. When I went into the town, people rushed up to congratulate me. Gordon was very kind. I thought what a good man he was and remembered that, in the beginning, I had been suspicious of him. But in those days everything at Tregarland's had seemed uncanny.

Dorabella rang often. She said how happy she was for me. She knew what it was to be happy and she wanted the same for her twin sister.

My parents were constantly in touch. They urged me to bring Jowan to Caddington, but they understood that that was not possible immediately.

As soon as it was, we would come.