So presently the four of them settled down to enjoy the fruits of Albert’s labours, chatting merrily as they did so. ‘Are you sure your parents won’t worry?’ Tess asked Snowy, as they began to eat. ‘I know Gran always got in an awful stew if I was late back from school.’

‘I don’t think they’d have worried, but just in case, I telephoned from the box on the corner,’ Snowy said. He grinned at Jonty. ‘Yes, we are on the telephone, which no doubt makes us landed gentry so far as you’re concerned.’

Jonty grinned too, then turned to Tess who was staring at him, clearly baffled by the remark. ‘When we met this morning Snowy accused me of being landed gentry,’ he explained. ‘But we know each other pretty well now so we don’t need to swap insults.’

The meal was a great success and afterwards the four of them set off for the hospital, arriving just as visiting started, and if Snowy was taken aback by the sight of Gran looking so pale and wan he hid his surprise very well.

‘Poor Mrs Williams, haven’t you had a horrid time,’ he said, eyeing her bandages and the injured leg in its plaster cast. ‘It’ll be a while before they let you out of this place.’ He plunged a hand into his pocket and produced a square package which he handed to the patient. ‘There you are! Lavender water and scented soap; Jonty said they were the sort of things any woman would like, so I hope he’s right.’ He grinned as she exclaimed with pleasure, unwrapping the brown paper to reveal his gifts. ‘What’s the grub like in here?’

Albert and Tess knew from experience that Gran found talking tiring, so they let her chatter away for the first ten minutes, and then, at an almost imperceptible nod from Albert, Tess began a spirited and probably apocryphal account of her interview. Gran lay back against her pillows and smiled and smiled as Jonty and Snowy told next of their own shopping experiences, and at the end of their recital Albert took over. He described every step in the creation of a Woolton pie, and Gran laughed until tears ran down her cheeks. She mopped them away merrily, however, saying that when she came out of hospital Albert should have the honour of cooking her first meal of freedom, as she called it, and she very much hoped that he would make her a Woolton pie just as beautiful as the one he had described.

Albert promised to do so and was just elaborating on the recipe which, by then, he would have learned to follow when the bell sounded and a tall, stern-looking nurse came to turn them out of the ward.

They walked home, Tess with Albert and the two boys following behind, but when they reached Albert’s shop and Tess would have said goodbye and thanks to Snowy, Jonty cut across her. ‘Hang on a minute,’ he said urgently. ‘Snowy and I have been talking and we believe there’s a problem which should be discussed.’ He turned to the older man. ‘Can we come up to your flat, Albert, and have a parley?’