David Amory

David Amory is Daisy’s husband, Paula’s father, and a trusted business partner to Emma Harte. First encountered in the family story as an energetic young Royal Air Force officer who falls in love with Daisy, he later carries substantial responsibility for running the Harte stores. His place in the narrative links a wartime romance to the continuing life of Emma’s commercial dynasty.

Identity and Work

In his professional role, David is joint managing director of the Harte chain of stores. Emma admires him and trusts him implicitly; he shoulders the heavy burden of their day-to-day operation. That confidence sets him apart as more than a relative benefiting from the family connection: he is a dependable executive entrusted with the practical work of keeping the business running.

The novel also gives his character an earlier setting in wartime service. At twenty-four, David is a recent arrival at Biggin Hill and already regarded as something of a war hero. Before the war, he had been studying law. His service interrupts that course, placing him among the young airmen whose presence brings both exhilaration and uncertainty into Emma’s home.

Arrival and Courtship

David enters Daisy’s life during a Christmas gathering at Belgrave Square. Robin arrives on a short pass with several fellow airmen, including David, whose tall, dark appearance, bright blue eyes, and engaging manner immediately catch Emma’s attention. To her, he recalls Paul McGill—not as a precise likeness, but as an echo of Paul in the First World War. The resemblance makes David’s arrival stir an older emotional memory even as he represents a new attachment.

Emma watches seventeen-year-old Daisy become enchanted by him, and sees that David is equally drawn to her. The attraction develops in full view of the household, amid the music, lively teasing, and conviviality of the holiday. Emma recognizes that the young couple are falling in love and cannot prevent it; she is not even sure that she wishes to interfere. After Christmas, David becomes a regular visitor to Belgrave Square, sometimes arriving with Robin and sometimes on his own.

As Emma gets to know him, she learns that he comes from an old Gloucestershire family and is well bred and well educated. She values his integrity, intelligence, and gentleness, qualities that persuade her he is right for Daisy. When he asks Emma’s permission to marry her in May 1943, shortly after Daisy’s eighteenth birthday, Emma’s first response is concern that Daisy is so young. Rather than insist on a delay, however, she finds herself asking when they intend to marry. Daisy, waiting anxiously by the fireplace, says they hope to do so the following weekend.

Marriage and Family

The wedding is deliberately modest, reflecting wartime conditions and Emma’s reluctance to display her wealth while the country is at war. Daisy wears a blue silk dress and matching picture hat, and carries a nosegay of summer flowers. Winston gives her away, Robin serves as best man, and Elizabeth is matron of honour. David’s parents and younger sister travel from Gloucestershire; afterwards, the small reception is held at Emma’s house.

The newlyweds spend one night at the Ritz Hotel before David returns to Biggin Hill and Daisy goes back to her mother’s home. The arrangement makes the limits imposed by the war tangible: marriage begins, but the couple are separated again almost immediately by David’s service. When Daisy later gives birth at the London Clinic, David is still at Biggin Hill. Emma tells Daisy that he is delighted and has secured a twenty-four-hour pass to come to London the next day. His response and hurried return underline his involvement as a father despite the distance duty imposes.

Relationship with Emma and Narrative Role

David’s relationship with Emma develops through two kinds of trust. As Daisy’s suitor, he wins her approval through his character rather than through family standing alone. As a senior figure in the stores, he earns her confidence by taking on the demanding daily management. The personal and professional bonds reinforce one another, making him part of the family’s continuity as well as its business structure.

His first appearance also creates a generational resonance. Emma sees in him a reminder of Paul, while watching her youngest child begin a romance of her own. The echo does not make David a substitute for the past: his integrity and gentleness are established as his own. Instead, the remembered resemblance places Daisy’s courtship beside Emma’s earlier experience, showing how affection and family life continue amid wartime loss and separation. David’s movement from young airman and suitor to husband, father, and trusted executive gives that continuity a concrete form.