A motor car! How wonderful!’ Carrie clapped her hands in delight. They were standing in Richmond’s cobbled town square. It was the morning of Charlie and Hermione’s wedding, and in order to attend it they had arranged to travel to Outhwaite together. Normally this would have meant an hour’s journey by bus on narrow, winding country roads, but to Carrie’s wonderment Hal had roared up the steep street into the square in an open-topped motor car. Hal grinned, pushing his driving goggles up into his dark curls. ‘It is pretty wonderful, isn’t it?’ he said, with the engine still running. ‘Hop in and I’ll tell you how I got it.’ Carrie didn’t need to be asked twice. She’d been enraptured by motor cars ever since her chauffeur-driven ride with Blanche in the Fenton Rolls-Royce. Mindful of how blowy a ride that had been, she took off the flower-decorated hat she’d bought especially for the wedding and hopped in. ‘How on earth have you managed to afford it?’ she asked as Hal, looking strangely formal in a navy-blue suit, put the car into gear.
