Avalanche of Daisies (58 page)

He was still struggling to explain why he'd hesitated for so long, as much to himself as to her. ‘They offered me leave,' he told her. ‘You mustn't think they kept me
there. They offered but I just sort of said no, put it off. And then it was hard to say yes.'

‘But you said yes in the end.'

‘Fortunately.'

She could be curious about that. ‘Why?'

‘It was your snapshot,' he told her. ‘I've been keeping a sort of diary, since Belsen, and I took it out and your snapshot was caught between the leaves. And when I turned it over … You'd written on the back of it, do you remember?'

‘No,' she had to admit. ‘I don't. Thass a long time ago.'

‘You said,
“Just in case you've forgot what I look like!
”'

She smiled at that. ‘And thass what made you come home?'

‘It made me think of home,' he said, ‘think of you. I suppose thinking made me want to be here with you. It seemed the right thing.'

‘Does it still?' It was a serious question and he answered it equally seriously.

‘Oh yes. I might not be sure of many things these days, but I'm sure of that.'

They were nearly at the pub. ‘How much leave have you got?' she asked.

‘Ten days,' he said, suddenly realising how happy he felt. ‘And more to come. I tell you what, how would you like to go back to the bungalow? I'll bet I could arrange it.'

She smiled into his eyes. ‘If there's one thing this war's taught me,' she said, ‘thass you can't go back. Only forward.'

He stopped to kiss her again. One last kiss before they went in and joined the celebration. They were both changed but he was home, they were together, love was possible. ‘Then that's where we'll go,' he said.

Beryl Kingston
was born in Tooting in 1931. She was eight when the war began and spent the early years of her education in many different schools, depending on her latest evacuation. As an undergraduate she attended King's College London, where she read English.

She married her childhood sweetheart when she was 19, with whom she has three children. Kingston was an English teacher before embarking on a career as a full-time writer in 1980.

Discover books by Beryl Kingston published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/BerylKingston

A Time to Love

Fourpenny Flyer

Gemma's Journey

Maggie's Boy

Sixpenny Stalls

Tuppenny Times

For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book.
The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

First published in Great Britain in 1999 by Arrow

Copyright © 1999 Beryl Kingston

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

eISBN: 9781448214723

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