All the Days of Our Lives

Synopsis

Book 3

It is 1946: the war is over and three young women face a new kind of life. But peacetime brings its own pressures . . . Katie O'Neill's childhood has been dominated by her temperamental mother and by frightening secrets that she barely understands. Innocent, yet hungry for love, she is easily taken in by male charm and is left outcast and alone with her young son. Emma Brown has spent the war at home in Birmingham, longing for her husband Norm to return and meet the son he has never seen. But she soon finds that the joy of homecoming only brings a whole new set of problems. And Molly Fox, after a sad and brutal childhood, found a place to belong during the war, in the women's army, the ATS. Now, the women are no longer wanted and Molly finds peacetime a bleak, difficult challenge. Finding work in guesthouses and holiday camps, she keeps running from herself, in search of a place she can call home. All the Days of Our Lives is the story of three girls who first met in a Birmingham classroom in the 1930s, each facing life with all its joys, sorrows and surprises.

ANNIE MURRAY

All the Days of Our Lives

PAN BOOKS

For Liz Downer,

with thanks for her friendship

Contents

1945

1931-1944

I: KATIE

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

1946

II: MOLLY

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

III: EM

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

IV: KATIE

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

V: MOLLY

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

VI: EM

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

1948-1949

VII: KATIE

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

VIII: EM

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

IX: MOLLY

Forty-Four

Forty-Five

Forty-Six

X: KATIE

Forty-Seven

Forty-Eight

Forty-Nine

Fifty

Fifty-One

Fifty-Two

Fifty-Three

Fifty-Four

XI: EM

Fifty-Five

Fifty-Six

XII: KATIE

Fifty-Seven

Fifty-Eight

XIII: MOLLY

Fifty-Nine

XIV: EM

Sixty

XV: KATIE

Sixty-One

Sixty-Two

1953

1945

‘Mom, Mom!’ Robbie threw himself, sobbing, against his mother’s legs. ‘Wanna come with you!’

‘Oh, Robbie.’ Em, in the middle of buttoning up her cardigan, bent over, upset and exasperated. Her son’s head was clamped to her thighs and she stroked his hair, hating to see him cry. ‘Don’t do this, babby. Come on, let go now. Mommy’s got to go out for a bit, that’s all.’

Her mother, Cynthia, swooped down. ‘Robbie, stop that now.’ She managed to wrestle him up into her arms. ‘That’s right, come to Nanna. Your mom’s not going to be out for long. It’s just like when she goes to work. You’ve got to stop going on like this. That’s it – let’s sit you at the table and I’ll get you some nice bread and a scrape of jam, if there’s any left!’

‘Thanks, Mom.’ Em picked up her bag. Though a mother herself, she still looked young enough to be a schoolgirl. ‘I dunno what’s come over him.’