‘There you are, my love.’ Larry’s homely wife, Betty, bustled out of the little kitchenette area and placed a mug of steaming tea down on Grace’s desk before popping a plate, with an enormous slice of still warm, traditional Jewish babka on, beside it. ‘I’ve put a smidge of sugar in your tea too … to keep your energy levels up. You look done in, dear, if you don’t mind me saying.’

‘Oh thank you, Betty.’ Grace put down her knitting; she was making a cable-stitch scarf for Jamie, and grinned up at the older woman, admiring the new lemon hand-crocheted waistcoat over her usual navy serge shift dress. Her black wig was coiffured into a wavy halo around her face.

‘Another late night?’ Betty asked, getting cosy in a brown leather bucket chair in the customer waiting area. Grace nodded hungrily through a mouthful of the chocolatey and cinnamon swirled bread that Betty frequently made from scratch and which she absolutely loved. She hadn’t had time to eat at lunchtime as the washing had taken longer to peg out than she had anticipated, and then Cora hadn’t liked the lasagne that Grace had cooked last night in an attempt to make life easier today. Instead, she had insisted on a time-consuming freshly made chicken salad with an oven-warmed baguette. And then the bus back to work had been stuck in traffic for what felt like ages.

‘Yes,’ Grace nodded, ‘and I’m sorry for being late again this morning …’ She turned away; there were only so many times one could apologise before it just felt embarrassingly superficial.

‘You do your best, my dear. That’s all any of us can do,’ Betty said kindly, rummaging in her crochet bag before pulling out a glorious candy-pink-coloured yarn. ‘It’s going to be a dolly blanket for our little Hannah in America,’ she chuckled, looping a length of the wool around her fingers as she worked the hook.

‘I think she’s going to treasure it,’ Grace smiled, remembering fondly when Betty and Larry’s granddaughter and her husband had visited from America to introduce their first great-grandchild, beautiful baby Hannah.

‘I hope so. It’s important to keep our family members happy. And how is your mother, dear?’