For his birthday, Howl had declared - on the morning of the day itself, of course - that he wanted a picnic and cake, then disappeared through the castle door to places unknown. After huffing in exasperation for a moment, Sophie outsourced the cake business to Michael (who would undoubtedly pass it on to Martha in his turn), pulled up her skirts and headed into town to buy ingredients for sandwiches.

Howl finally returned just as Sophie was finishing her sandwich pile and carefully tying them up in waterproofed cloth. "Have you given any thought to where you want this picnic to be?"

"I know the perfect place," said Howl dreamily. He handed her a bag made of some kind of crinkly white fabric and told her to make certain it stayed cold.

"What is it?" she asked, peeking in the bag, but all she saw was several bundles wrapped in paper.

"Sausages," Howl replied absently, peering out the window of the castle. He muttered to himself for a moment and the castle abruptly lurched and changed direction.

"You had to go to Wales for sausages?" asked Sophie incredulously, because the crinkly white bags were a sure sign that Howl had been to Wales. "There are sausages in Market Chipping."

"Not these kind of sausages."

"But how are you going to cook--" Howl had disappeared upstairs. Calcifer had been gone for a week now, but Howl insisted he would return soon. He always had in the past.

Sophie sighed, but put Howl's bag in the coolroom all the same.

Sophie's sisters arrived together, Martha bearing a large box and Lettie with a platter of some kind of honey tarts. Sophie hadn't specifically invited them, but since Howl would not object, it wasn't worth the argument. Besides, there were enough sandwiches.

Michael came in bearing the bag of lemons Sophie had sent him for, and Sophie put the three of them to juicing them for lemonade.

Howl reappeared downstairs with his usual impeccable timing - which is to say, he arrived just as all the work was finished. Since it was his birthday Sophie let it pass without comment.

"We're there." Howl looked over the five people in the kitchen with surprise. "Are you all coming?"

"It's not a birthday party without a big group of friends," said Martha logically.

"But I'm throwing a big party on Saturday night!" Howl protested.

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "Well, you had best get started sending invites, since none of us were aware of that."

Howl blinked. "I could have sworn I... Well, I will do that tomorrow, then." He strode to the door and flung it open. "There!"

Sophie picked up her basket of sandwiches and Howl's bag and followed Howl through the door.

The castle had settled itself at the edge of a grassy valley. A river was bubbling along the middle of the valley, and it was framed on three sides by mountains with snowy peaks. Wildflowers dotted the grass, serviced by butterflies and bees. It was quite perfect.

Howl was completely over-dressed for a picnic, and Sophie thought with dismay that it would be a terrible job trying to get the grass stains out of his trouser legs. Still, it was hard to feel too annoyed when it was also one of Sophie's favourite outfits on him. Not that she had ever told him this.

Howl spread a blanket over the grass at the river's edge and sat down with relish. Sophie set her basket on one corner and sat opposite him while Martha, Lettie and Michael took their own positions to the side.

Sophie unpacked the food while Martha poured lemonade and conversations began. Lettie wanted to know about Martha's new dress; Martha wanted to know about Lettie's new brooch; Michael wanted Howl to know about the strange message he'd had from Wizard Sullivan.

"Look!" cried Lettie, pointing into the sky and interrupting Michael's opinions on the new government. "A shooting star!"

"In the daytime?" said Martha incredulously, but of course it was Calcifer, wheeling his way down to join their party and scorching the grass in his wake.

Howl greeted him with delight. "I began to be afraid you'd forgotten."

Sophie ran back to the castle to fetch some tinder and a cast-iron grate to put them in. When she returned Howl was arguing with Calcifer about cooking the sausages.

"They don't taste the same if they're cooked inside," said Howl. "And it's my birthday, anyway."

Calcifer muttered that he didn't see what difference that should make, but after a little more wheedling he grudgingly acquiesced. Sophie ran back to the castle fetch a frying pan from the castle, Howl having objected that thanks to Sophie's compulsive cleaning he had no idea where any of the pots and pans were anymore.

"But you have to cook them," she told Howl, handing him the frying pan and sitting back down firmly.

Howl didn't even protest, taking the pan and settling it on top of Calcifer's flickering blue face with relish. He unwrapped a string of sausages from the paper and cut the links of the chain with a knife, dropping them into the sizzling pan.

Sophie ate cucumber sandwiches and watched him idly. "We didn't bring any plates," she pointed out, as the sausages sizzled away. The castle wasn't very far away, but Sophie felt she had already been up and down quite enough. Besides, the heat was making her lazy.

"We'll eat it off slices of bread," said Howl absently, turning the sausages with a pair of metal tongs.

There was fresh bread and butter in the basket, although Sophie couldn't remember putting it there. Why bring bread and not plates, she wondered?

Howl pulled a sandwich from the pile without looking at it and bit in. "Ugh, cucumber? Sophie, I thought I told you I wouldn't have that vegetable in my house." He frowned at the sandwich in his hand and took another bite. "Tuna. Much better."

Sophie took another bite of her own sandwich - still cucumber, to her relief - and ignored Howl.

Howl plucked one of the sausages out of the pan, folded a square of bread around it in a triangle and handed it to Sophie.

The sausages were, indeed, nothing like the ones available in any of the towns Howl's castle had access to. They were spicy and meaty and, she suspected, extremely expensive.

Once all the sausages were consumed and the sandwiches reduced to nothing more than crumbs on a scrap of fabric, Howl yawned and got to his feet. "I'm going for a walk." He hesitated for a moment. "Sophie, could you..." Sophie readied a quick dismissal, feeling the post-lunch lethargy coming on and not wanting to interrupt it. "...come with me?" Howl finished, and Sophie snapped her mouth shut.

"All right," she said, getting to her feet and brushing down her skirts.

They walked along the riverbank for some time in silence. The sun was warm on Sophie's back and she found the tinkling of the river calming. Howl walked beside her, rigid with tension, occasionally glancing down at Sophie before quickly looking away again. Sophie watched butterflies fluttering around the wildflowers and little fishing flickering in the water and wondered what was on Howl's mind.

Just as Sophie was starting to get truly irritated, Howl stopped. He had one hand in his pocked and two bright spots of red had appeared on his cheeks. "Sophie. I..."

Sophie raised her eyebrows and turned to face him properly, which seemed to make him bite his tongue. "Howl?" she prompted, as the silence continued.

Howl was still fiddling with something in his pocket. "Sophie, will you... Oh, curse it." And he added a few words in that liquid language.

"Howl," said Sophie incredulously. "Are you trying to propose to me?"

Howl froze. "Something like that," he admitted sheepishly.

"But why are you so nervous about it? You with all your smooth words, surely you can't be at loss for them all of a sudden." Still, if he had been all glib smiles and flourishes she might have found it hard to take him seriously.

She could feel a little spark of happiness glowing with her.

"I thought if I didn't plan it it would work better," Howl confessed. "But it seems I was wrong." He didn't seem particularly distressed about it.

"I'm sorry I didn't realise you meant it to be a private picnic," said Sophie.

"That's all right. I'm used to your family poking their noses in where they don't belong."

Fortunately for him, at the moment Sophie felt like she would never be annoyed at anything again.

"But Sophie... you will say yes, won't you?"

She smiled at him. "Of course."