Through the huge windows, the view outside was like a painting: the sky, a mottled grey and below it were vast curves of rolling green hills.

Maggie squeezed through the gap between the end of her bed and the wardrobe, to get a better look. She leaned on the windowsill and gazed out.

So, this was the Cotswolds. Odd name. Odd place.

‘Can you see the swimming pool?’ Nancy called over. ‘The chaps say they’re going to swim every morning!’

Maggie looked down at the bright green square of lawn and spotted a perfect rectangle of azure blue.

‘Rather them than me,’ Pam said. She was lying on her back, gazing up at the ceiling.

Maggie gazed wistfully at the pool. She’d never swum in an outdoor pool; she’d rather like to, even if it were cold. She could swim rather well. Her dad had taught her in the public pool, a bus ride away. They’d go on Saturday afternoons and he was surprisingly patient, as they splashed around in the water. They were some of the few happy times she’d spent with him.

Imagine swimming in that pool during the glorious hot summer they’d just had! Heaven. And even now, the air was still warm. She could have taken a dip, if only she’d brought her swimming costume. But packing for Snowden had been such a rush and she’d been packing to come to work, not for a holiday.

‘Yikes!’ Nancy said suddenly. ‘Good springs in this one!’ She was bouncing on the bed, her blonde curls bobbing. ‘This is like a dorm! Like the good old days, back at school!’

‘Minus midnight feasts or pillow fights,’ Pam said.

Nancy grinned. ‘Oh, I don’t know. We might manage one or two of those. I say, Maggie, which school did you go to?’

‘I … I didn’t go away to school,’ she admitted. ‘I went to grammar school, though.’

‘Ooh, clever clogs!’

‘Not really.’ She wouldn’t tell them she’d won a scholarship. ‘I didn’t like it much,’ she added.

‘Gosh, didn’t you? I loved school!’ Nancy said. ‘Best days of your life! I’m hoping this is going to be rather like school, aren’t you, Pam?’

‘Abso-blinking-lutely!’

The other two had been to boarding school; no wonder they found this all so easy. Maggie had never even been away from home before and as for school … her stomach churned at the memory of the grammar school, where scholarship girls like her from the East End were looked down on. She’d only stuck it out because Mutti had been so proud. She’d scrimped and saved to buy the uniform, despite Dad’s moaning. He thought it was a waste of money, couldn’t see the point in educating a girl.