"Uh, Uh", came the muted response but his eyes were still closed. She gazed down at his face tranquil in its repose and resumed.

"Soon you will be kissed and then kissed again, gently and lovingly ... on your lips - by the one you loved ... long ago. You will return the kisses with lingering softness and the gentle passion of your most cherished memories".

"You will float back in time and feel her kisses on your lips and on your face. You will reach out and encircle her in your arms and you will be with her again. She will be as real as the warm body you feel besides you and as real as the touch of her kisses on your face. She is there but also she is here wanting you. Join her. Be brave and you can drift together on a gentle cloud of your happiest dreams".

The words moved through the afternoon air and formed an idyll around them, engulfed them in a protective shield. Time formed a womb in which the now and then became one.

He felt her soft lips on his and her warm body on his and the kisses lingered on for ever. His eyes were tightly closed and, he let himself believe. Soon he began to return the kisses of the lady he had lost those years away. He held her tight and felt the pain of being apart flowing from him. Then tears flowed from both their eyes, mingled between their cheeks and saltily on their lips and they held each other tightly lost in mutual dreams.

After what seemed an they fell apart from each other. No desire to make love. They were too close in that moment. But finally, when they walked back to the farmhouse, they walked back hand in hand - as lovers do when they return home.

He stopped at the entrance to the cottage garden and drew her aside into the slight shade of a Rowan tree. Her cheeks were flushed warmly red like the berries above.

He looked deeply into her eyes, hesitated for a long moment, and then his lips descended again to hers. Through hazes of sensation that welled up inside her and with growing excitement, Sarah knew he had said goodbye. But not to her - his eyes were open and it was now she that he kissed.

As they entered the kitchen, Tim's mother looked up from the stove, saw two serenely happy, slightly flushed faces, smiled a knowing, questioning smile and then went back to her work.

Upstairs, in Sarah's bedroom, they sat down on Sarah's comfortable old double bed and gazed at each other.

"It feels absolutely stunningly wonderful and I know it's not really the moment to ask", said Sarah as she struggled to pull herself together, "but have we the faintest idea of what are we doing"?

Tim laughed, looking down at her tiny hands between his.

"How should I know, I'm just a man - and men don't understand these things even when they are pretty straight forward".

It was a sort of embarrassed laugh with lots of uncertainty around its' edges.

"I'm in the middle of the most important deal of my life. I need to resort to all sorts of unpleasant, immoral ruses to carry the deal off and what do I do? I start to fall for the lady I'm potentially sending off into somebody else's bed".

Sarah lifted up his hands, kissed them and cradled them to her cheek and continued his thought.

"And for my part, I have to say that the lady who is also falling for you, deep down also understands she may have to spend time in somebody else's bed - although that is the last thing she wants to do. Which is very confusing since she originally only agreed to the plan with the idea of holding her family together not destroying it".

"What a pair we are", said Tim.

"And maybe that's the point", breathed Sarah to herself with an insight that she didn't feel she needed to share. Then aloud: "However, I know just the thing to calm our ardour - just two little words".

"What's that".

"The words are quite simply 'Ferret Face'. How on earth did he track us down and what on earth are we going to do to get him off our backs".