I think both of their kids were growing up too fast. Mary came back and climbed up on my lap and we exchanged presents. Johnny got the two new video g...mes he wanted. I had to check with Beth before I purchased them, to make sure that Santa wasn't getting him the same ones. Mary got a Cabbage Patch doll. They were the rage in 1983. I had to go back out and get the set of water skis I had gotten for the family. I got John a new-high end set of poker chips.Beth got a tennis bracelet and a gift. She kissed my cheek before walking towards our doorway and I looked at Belet, “What is it?”He followed Sam with his eyes and then grinned as he looked at me, “I think I’m going to win the pool.”I smiled as I looked at Sam entering the house, “Just as long as it’s soon.”He laughed and turned towards the Guard headquarters, “One of my guards noticed an unknown merchant by the militia practice grounds.”I looked at him as I fell in beside him, “And?”He grinned, “He knocked him on the head and. Each with his own story of his part in the last world war, Each holding their memories of fallen comrades, small and large victories, amusing anecdotes and tales to enthral young children, or bore the elder, young men. Not all of the war had been about blood and guts, mud, hard rations or killing the Germans and the Japanese. Some of it had lighter moments, but not much.Every year he stood apart away from the massed crowds and watched. Nobody ever spoke to him of the scene or of what it. “I still love you.”I kissed her back, relief flooding over me as I wrapped my hands around her and pulled her tight, hoping to feel, imagining I could feel, the bumps of her nipples against my chest. She had said the L-word! Did she really love me? It was still time to go home and, after a passionate vertical embrace, Emily sprinted back into the stable block and left me to walk home.It was chilling how close a call it had been: just as I reached the bottom of the manor house drive and turned.