‘If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened. I am grateful, Ray, really I am.’

He waved away her thanks. ‘You’d have managed, somehow.’

‘I wouldn’t! I can’t ride a bike on my own or read a map or a compass.’

Ray put his finger on his chin and pretended to think. ‘No, you’re right. You’d never have managed in a million years!’

Maggie laughed.

‘I might as well tell you this now,’ she said. ‘I’ve been offered the chance to go and do my bit.’

Ray’s stomach plunged but, at the same time, he wasn’t surprised.

‘It was Lord Ashford’s idea,’ she went on. ‘He knows of a unit that needs good German speakers to listen into pilots’ radio transmissions and translate them.’

He fixed his mouth in a smile and continued to look out at the sunset. It was starting to disappear over the horizon. It didn’t look quite so brilliant anymore.

‘Well done, you,’ he said. His voice sounded flat; his mind was racing. Did this mean she’d be leaving Snowden?

‘I had to speak to someone on the phone in German. It was an interview, I suppose, and anyway …’ She shrugged. ‘I must have passed the test because, if I want it, the position is mine.’

Ray swallowed. ‘And do you think it would suit you?’

She nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, I do. After all, I don’t want to spend the whole war sitting behind a typewriter. I don’t know where I’ll be posted yet, of course.’

Ray nudged her. ‘Well, if you go by train, don’t forget to take that carpet bag and the bloomin’ cat, will you?’

She giggled. ‘Oh, I love you, Ray! You don’t half make me laugh.’

His heart missed a beat. He cleared his throat. Of course, she didn’t mean it. She didn’t love him. Not like that. It was only a turn of phrase.

Imagine if he’d taken her words at face value, grabbed her hands and blurted out, ‘Maggie Corbett, I love you too!’

The thought of it made him go hot and then cold.

‘When my dad died,’ he said, quickly, ‘my ma couldn’t ever get to sleep. She used to ask me to tell her stories about nice things. So, I did. And I always tried to make her laugh.’

He could hardly see Maggie now; the light was almost gone.

‘And did it help?’

Ray nodded, wishing he didn’t feel so blue all of a sudden. ‘Yes.’ His voice was cracking. He coughed and turned away. ‘Yes, it did.’

Chapter 45

A few days before Christmas, the girls were playing Monopoly in the drawing room.

Nancy twirled the spinner and moved her counter along the board. ‘Do you think the bombing will stop for Christmas?’ she asked.

Maggie’s stomach somersaulted, as it always did whenever anyone mentioned the raids.