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rushed down the stairs to find Mrs Mellors unpacking a box of woollens she’d been busy knitting at home all week.
    ‘Mrs Mellors, Mrs Mellors,’ Jessica shouted, jumping up and down.
    ‘Calm down, for pity’s sake,’ Mrs Mellors said. ‘What on earth’s happened?’
    ‘I got a letter from Brian and he says he loves me and wants to marry me. He wants us to get married right away on his next leave.’
    ‘Well, thank God he’s turned out to be a decent chap after all. I’m very pleased to hear it, Jessie, but sad too.’
    ‘How can you be sad? Isn’t this the very best thing that could have happened?’
    ‘For you, yes. For me, it means being without you and that hardly bears thinking about. First my son, and now my daughter.’
    ‘But you won’t be without me. Brian knows what my flat and the Barras and you mean to me. He says I can stay here and he’ll come over and spend every leave with me.’
    Mrs Mellors thought for a minute. ‘I suppose that’s the best way. I don’t know how you’d get on in some god-forsaken place in the middle of the desert. And with the terrible heat I’ve heard there is out there, it wouldn’t be very good for a wee baby. Yes, I think him coming over here is for the best.’ She visibly relaxed. ‘Congratulations, Jessie. Now, we’ll have to start thinking about all the preparations for your wedding.’
    ‘Och, it’ll be a month or two yet before he gets over. Before he got my letter, he was due leave and he spent it in Dubai. That’s why it’ll be another few weeks before he gets another leave. And I seem to be getting fatter by the minute. So it’ll have to be a very quiet affair with just you and Evie.’
    ‘I’ll knit you a nice loose top. A real pretty one. You’ll be fine.’
    ‘Oh thanks, Mrs Mellors.’ Jessica pounced on her and gave her an enthusiastic hug. ‘You’re always so good to me.’
    ‘And you’re good to me, Jessie. You work like a slave at my stall.’
    ‘Some slave,’ Jessica laughed. ‘You know fine I love the work and you pay me well.’
    ‘Not well enough. But I’ll knit you a nice top. And maybe one of those capes that drape back across one shoulder.’
    ‘You’ve already knitted plenty for the baby.’
    ‘Knitting’s nothing to me. I can do it with my eyes shut.’
    ‘Oh, but isn’t it wonderful, wonderful news that he loves me.’
    ‘Why shouldn’t he? He’d be daft if he didn’t. You’re a very lovable wee lassie.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’
    ‘Well, I do. Now calm down and help me unpack all this stuff and set it out on the stall.’
    Jessica sang as she worked. She had never been so happy in all her life. Now she could have the best of both worlds. Her flat, her Barras, her Calton, and her Brian. Not to mention the baby they had made together that would be part of them both.
    What a relief it was that she would not need to go to a strange country and be among strange people in what sounded like a very frightening place. Brian had told her about the terrorist attacks there had been on the compound. He had told her that the terrorists were always successfully repulsed by the armed soldiers who guarded the compound. Nevertheless, it sounded a very scary environment. She would worry about the baby’s safety and well-being, as well as her own. It would be bad enough worrying about Brian living there. But he seemed to be well used to the place, he enjoyed his job and had made lots of friends.
    Yes, the arrangement he had suggested was best for both of them. She could imagine how it would be like a honeymoon each time he came home on leave. She was indeed the luckiest of mortals.
    Mrs Mellors, and then the customers, laughed at her singing so merrily as she worked.
    ‘What’s happened to you that’s making you so cheery today?’ the customers asked.
    Flushed with delight, Jessica kept answering, ‘I’ll be getting married soon.’
    ‘I’m getting married in the morning …’ Some of the customers