I’m going to do my bit for the war effort and give Hitler what for. I can’t sit around in the countryside any longer doing nothing when Jimmy has sacrificed his life. The dark cloud still lingers and I’m really not much use to anyone these days. Certainly not little Lara, who to my shame has been neglected of my love and attention and instead looks to Mother to care for her. I have tried to feed her and bathe her but I feel she senses my sadness and becomes fretful, until Mother lifts her from my arms to soothe her. Mother says I must pull myself together and find something useful to do now that Lara is nearly a year old, so I’m returning to London to work in the factory where Jimmy used to sweep the floors. Only I shan’t be sweeping floors, I’m going to make parachutes and inflatable dinghies, and all sorts of other useful things to help the soldiers who are still fighting. I couldn’t do anything to help my darling Jimmy, so this will go some small way to make up for that. My sweet baby girl, Lara, is to stay with Mother and Father here in Tindledale, as London isn’t safe for her, and I will come here on the train to visit her on my days off. It’s going to be such a wrench to leave her, but it really is for the best. My life would most certainly be over if she were to be taken from me too …

Grace let out a long puff of air and turned the page. She was sitting on the carpet in Connie’s storage unit, reading more of her diary entries and feeling very uneasy about the change in tone. It was as if Connie had hardened and packed her emotions away now that her life was wholly determined by her mother … something Grace could definitely identify with. Connie certainly wasn’t doing what she really wanted to, as Grace had also found a piece of paper tucked inside the pages of one of the Variety magazines in the hatbox with the following heartbreaking words written on it in Connie’s handwriting. Grace was sure that Connie had been crying when she wrote the note, as the faint outline of faded little splatter marks could still be seen down one side.