Maggie had never heard of a boot store until she came to Snowden. Overcoats and jackets were kept there too and it was as big as their whole kitchen back home.

Charity held out a corned beef sandwich and when Maggie hesitated, she said, ‘Go on. I’ve got heaps today.’

They sat and ate for a minute in companionable silence, then Charity asked, ‘So, how’s the tandem? Making progress?’

Maggie pulled a face. ‘It’s bloomin’ hard work!’

Charity winced. ‘Oh dear. Is Ray rather dull, after all?’

‘No, I meant the tandem. It weighs a ton! I shall end up with enormous calf muscles and have to wear slacks for the rest of my life to cover them up.’ She shifted her position cautiously on the wall and winced. ‘Ouch! I don’t half ache.’

Charity nodded. ‘Welcome to the club. So, you’re getting on with Ray, then?’

Maggie nodded. They’d practised a few times now around the estate, sometimes changing and dashing out in their lunchbreaks for a quick half-hour. He was actually rather nice, once you got him away from the banking hall. She needn’t have worried about him being overbearing or cross with her if she couldn’t manage to ride the bloomin’ thing. He was nicer, away from work.

It had been a shock, when she first straddled the tandem, how close they had to sit. Ray’s broad back was just inches away. But once they started moving, she felt the wind in her hair and realised that it was rather good fun, it didn’t seem so strange, to be sitting so close.

She couldn’t see ahead unless she stuck her head out to the side and then the whole tandem shook and Ray yelled, ‘Don’t lean!’

So, she’d had to stop trying to look ahead and simply had to trust him.

‘Thanks for lending me the breeches, by the way,’ Maggie said. ‘They’ve been a godsend.’

‘Not too big, are they?’

Maggie shook her head. ‘A little but I’m very glad of them. At least, if the worst happens and I end up headfirst in a ditch, I’ll keep some dignity! You know, the other girls have christened the tandem “Daisy”? Pam and Nancy can’t stop singing the song. You know the one?’

Charity rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, yes. “You’ll look sweet, upon the seat of a bicycle made for two.” Gosh, I bet Pam murders that, doesn’t she? Whoever told her she could sing wants locking up!’

They laughed.

‘Are they behaving themselves otherwise, those roommates of yours?’ Charity asked. She leaned to one side to fish a packet of cigarettes and matches out of her breeches’ pocket.