Nearer the back end of the house, from which glass doors led out to the garden, there was a fireplace with a couple of comfy old chairs covered in green-and-white flowered chintz beside it and, against the wall behind, an upright piano.

‘Oh,’ Katie said, surprised. ‘It’s lovely! And a piano – can you play it?’

‘I was just about to ask you the same question. I live in hope!’

‘No, I’m afraid I never learned,’ Katie said.

‘It’s beyond me now,’ Sybil said. ‘My sister Cordelia is the real pianist and I used to play around a bit on it, before my wretched hands seized up.’ She held her hands out, swollen and gnarled-looking, and Katie felt for her. ‘Mr Treace can tinkle a bit, but nothing that you’d really want to listen to exactly, I’m afraid.’ She chuckled. ‘Yes, young man,’ she said and Michael came and peered curiously at it. ‘Have you seen a piano before?’ She opened the lid. ‘Look, I’ll show you something. That’s middle C – that’s right, you press it.’

Michael looked up at her, fascinated as the note sounded out.

‘You’ll have to learn to play, won’t you?’ Sybil smiled, closing the lid again. ‘Now, this room is where we all eat – breakfast and evening meal. Lunch is your affair, of course. I’ll have your ration books off you. I’ve a girl does some shopping for me and a few odd jobs. Better that we all share – I like my house to be a home, not a doss-house. I don’t hold with all this crouching in little rooms over a solitary electric ring. It’s wasteful and uncivilized. Now, we can arrange for you to feed the boy separately, if you wish him to have tea early, but otherwise food will be on the table at seven. You’ll hear the gong. In fact, I need to go and finish it off now. So – d’you want the room or not?’

Maudie laughed wholeheartedly when Katie told her where she had found new lodgings for the following month.

‘Old Sybil Routh? Oh yes, Mummy and I know her from the church. In fact I think her father was a clergyman, though not round here. There are quite a few Rouths scattered around somewhere – I think she was one of six or seven. She’s quite potty, but actually rather nice. Such odd clothes! But how funny that you should go there. I think she runs a bit of a home for waifs and strays, even though she tries to pretend she’s terribly businesslike about it. She’s an interesting lady – used to be some kind of social worker, I believe. Or was it a nurse? Well, that’s lovely, Katie – you’re not far away and you, little M, can come round and see me while your mummy’s at work, can’t you?’

In her sweet, spontaneous way, Maudie swept Michael up into her arms and kissed him and Katie laughed, suddenly amazed by how good life felt.