look that had crossed Samuel Forrester’s face when his eyes lit on Amy.
By early evening Amy herself had long since forgotten the incident. The elderflower wine was flowing like water and she was more than a little tiddly and so was Beatrice, who had also been given the day off to attend her sister’s wedding. Molly was watching both girls closely and when she saw them cross to the table to refill their glasses she stepped in smartly.
‘I think you’ve both had quite enough o’ that, young ladies,’ she said sternly.
‘Molly’s quite right,’ Toby agreed. ‘Now get yerself off to bed, our Beatrice, an’ get some sleep – else you’ll not be fit for work tomorrow. And how about if I take Amy for a stroll down the lane, Molly? Give her a breath o’ fresh air, eh?’
Molly winked at him. ‘I reckon that’s a very good idea.’
Grabbing Amy by her elbow, Toby steered her over to the door. Beatrice lurched towards the stairs and they both laughed as she stumbled on the first step.
Once outside, Amy sighed happily and tucking her arm into Toby’s they began to stroll along in companionable silence. The noise of the party gradually receded into the distance, and the little row of terraced cottages slipped away behind them. Eventually they reached the banks of the River Anker and contentedly they wandered along until they reached the fork in the midnight waters. The leaves on the overhanging willow trees gently kissed the water and the riverbed reeds swayed softly in the warm evening breeze. Through the evening twilight they could just make out the old water mill that stood in Mill Walk, and almost as one they sank down on to the velvety green grass of the riverbank. Nearby, a fat old water rat plopped into the water, leaving a trail of bubbles behind him, and the sound of nesting moorhens floated on the air. It was a glorious evening and high overhead the stars began to appear and twinkle down on them, casting their reflections like fairy dust on to the slow-moving current.
Amy hugged her knees and sighed dreamily. ‘Eeh, Mary looked lovely, didn’t she?’ she said and Toby nodded, his eyes on her face as she stared into the water. But although he agreed with her, he was thinking at that moment that even Mary in her wedding finery couldn’t hold a light to this girl sitting beside him now.
Luckily Amy was studying the progress of the old water rat that was swimming amongst the reeds and was oblivious to her friend’s thoughts; her own locked tight on the wonderful day they had just spent.
There was nothing but the sounds of the night creatures scurrying about their business and the stars shining on the water, and there might have been no one else left in the whole world but the two of them. Suddenly the urge came on Toby to take her in his arms there and then, but using all of his self-restraint, he managed to stop himself as sadness crept over him.
Amy was beautiful, kind-hearted and talented, and somehow he felt that she was destined for better things. She was far too good for a simple man like him. Underneath he had always sensed it. There was a quality about her that set her far above the people in the cottages where she had grown up. Something about the way she carried herself. The way she spoke. Even the way she smiled made her a being apart and he knew that he would never be good enough for her even if he lived to be a hundred.
His thoughts made him sigh unconsciously and Amy immediately turned to him, her face full of concern. Her small hand came up to tenderly caress his cheek and again she saw him as the young man he now was and not the boy she had grown up with. She looked at him in a different light, noticing the way his thick fair hair tumbled across his brow and the deep dark depths of his eyes. And she was instantly confused.
Their eyes met and locked, and suddenly she longed for him to kiss her. She had never been kissed before but her palm was tingling as it touched his face and her heart was pounding painfully in her chest. His large hand came up and gently covered hers and with not a word spoken they moved towards each other, lost in each other’s eyes. But then