‘What did you do in the war?’ she imagined someone asking her one day and her answer would be so shameful she didn’t know if she’d dare admit it. What could she say, after all? ‘Oh, I did my bit, all right. I ran away to the countryside and I saved the life of a cat.’

Chapter 6

‘And this’ll be your room,’ Mrs Mason, the housekeeper, said.

Maggie could hardly believe her luck; she was bunking down in the house after all! She was sharing a room at the back of the house, but it was still the closest she’d ever get to the life of a royal princess.

Her roommates were Miss Fry and Miss Barbour. They were a little older than her – early twenties, she guessed – and their clothes were very up-to-the-minute but they seemed nice enough. They’d already told her to call them ‘Nancy and Pam’.

‘You’re to keep the room tidy yourselves,’ Mrs Mason said. She sniffed. ‘There’s no one here to clean up after you, do you hear?’

After the butler – an actual butler – had opened Snowden’s front door to the bank staff, it was Mrs Mason who’d welcomed them.

If you could call it a welcome.

She’d stood in the hall as they came in and shaken their hands without enthusiasm. ‘Dakin’ll show you around down here before I take you up to your rooms. And I’ll be needing your ration books. Don’t forget, mind,’ she’d said.

She was a dour woman in her sixties, with a neat bun of grey hair, ruddy cheeks and an unmistakeable black eye. She reminded Maggie of the no-nonsense women from the street back home.

Now, on the landing, the girls peered into the room. There were two sash windows on the far wall, three neatly made narrow beds with hardly a gap between them, a wooden chest, mirror and wardrobe.

‘Tonks’ll bring your bags up,’ Mrs Mason said. ‘We’ll be serving a late lunch in half an hour. Bathroom’s down the corridor.’

An indoor lav! What a treat! No chamber pot or trekking out to the privy at night. Maggie almost squealed at the thought but the other two were taking it all in their stride, so she kept quiet.

‘Thank you!’ she called down the corridor, as the housekeeper took her leave. ‘I’m sure we’ll be very comfortable!’

By the time she’d turned around, the others had shot into the room. Pam was stretched out on the bed against the far wall, Nancy on the middle one, leaving the bed closest to the door for Maggie. It would be draughty, no doubt, and there wasn’t a lock, so if an intruder came, she’d be first to get it. But, on the bright side, if she needed to get up in the night, at least she wouldn’t have to scramble over anyone.