SPOILERS!!!
The novel ends at Christmas. Some of the girls are supposed to go to their families at Christmas, but a snowstorm stops all trains, so the girls have to stay on the farm. The only one who manages to reach her family is Georgina, who travels with her brother on his motorbike.
During her stay with her parents, Georgina wants to tell them that after all the experiences she has had, her ideas about pacifism have changed, and she has been recruited by the Air Transport Auxiliary Service as she can fly a plane. Her brother also feels guilty for staying at home while men fight a war, so he has decided to go and fight even though he is exempted.
After her days with her family, Lionel takes Georgina to the cottage where Christopher is now living. Georgina and he fell out over her decision and when she refused him when he hinted that they had a future together. Now Christopher lives in the cottage that his father's old lumberjack used to have. This is what he loves to do. Georgina and he finally talk, and when he kisses her, she feels that this kiss could start something she didn't feel before.
On the farm as the girls finally stayed and with a few extra guests like Rose's son and Mabel's grandmother and little 'brother', Alice doesn't have enough food for everybody. However, Christmas is a success when Oliver brings his soldiers with lots of food, and Mr Bayliss, who we now know is attracted to Alice, also brings things. During the party Oliver tells Alice that he and his wife are finally through as she is in love with someone else, so they are going to divorce. Oliver tells him that he is being tranferred someone else, and he wants Alice to come with him because he loves her, but Alice knows she doesn't love him, so she lets him down, saying that it is too soon after the breakup of her marriage.
At the party Marion meets Sergeant Marvin Kinsk, a US marine, and she starts having feelings that she never experienced before. When she tells Winnie, the latter fears that this man could become an obstacle to realize their dream of having their own pub.
Hester gets a surprise when Reuben turns up and asks her to marry him and she says yes. Hester and Reuben would like to be married in her father's church, but they think that is unlikely to happen as her father has already made his disapproval known. During the party Hester also had the attentions of Rose's son, Dave, even though his mother told him that Hester was already spoken for.
So that is the end of this novel, and I'll definitely keep reading about these ladies in the next instalments.
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