Love and the LAND GIRL

THE STORY SO FAR: Spring 1941. Sarah is training as a Land Girl away from home, and has left behind her parents, who seem worryingly unhappy. Meanwhile, there’s also unhappiness on the farm. One of the other Land Girls, Heather, is hiding a pregnancy. The other, Morag, knows about it and is convinced the father is an Italian civilian. Britain is at war with Italy as well as Germany, and Morag’s fiancé is away fighting the Italians. There has been no word about him. She can’t forgive Heather for going with the enemy, but confides in Sarah one night that she’s also jealous. She and her fiancé had decided to wait until they married. Later that same night, Sarah finds Heather heading over to the farmhouse and, concerned that she might be ill, follows her. But she finds her in the arms of the farmer Mr Hall, and discovers that he is the father of Heather’s baby.

Next morning, it was as if the previous day’s events had coloured everything. Life felt gloomy and grey, wrapped up in something that wouldn’t shift. Sarah found it hard to get up. She was exhausted, having lain awake for an age the previous night, thinking about Heather’s astonishing relationship with Mr Hall. She was still brooding about it at milking time. He was old, must be pushing 50, surely? If Morag hadn’t convinced her about the Italian, she might have noticed more than just an occasional little glance or secretive smile between them, wondered more about Heather being