‘Hut,’ Marek said. He was at the piano, with Michael on his lap, teaching him to play. ‘Nissen hut – like army.’

‘Oh yes, I see, ‘Katie said. ‘I don’t suppose they were very comfortable.’

‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘But OK. We have live like this long time now . . .’

‘Right,’ Sybil called from the kitchen. ‘Someone go and tell the Arbuckles it’s dinner time, will you?’

The meal was delicious. All the women wore their best frocks, Susan Arbuckle’s being a spectacular pink silky creation, very tight across the bust.

‘Very nice,’ Piotr said when he saw her, and Susan’s cheeks flamed with pleasure. Sybil produced a bottle of red wine, which Agnieska declined and Susan said, ‘Oh dear, no – I’d better not . . .’ So the rest of them enjoyed it.

As they tucked into their first course, Marek raised his glass and said, ‘A toast, to Miss Routh.’

They all toasted with enthusiasm. Sybil sat back, pushing a strand of hair from her eyes, flushed in the face from her efforts in the kitchen.

‘Well, thank you,’ she said, raising her own glass. ‘And may I drink to all of you. This is a very happy household and, without you all, I expect I should be a crabby old lady. So – good health to you all!’

They all clapped and cheered and joined in the toast. Michael, very excited, carried on clapping and Agnieska laughed.

‘Eat up,’ Katie whispered. Marek, on the other side of her, squeezed her knee for a moment and she looked round and smiled.

It was a very jolly meal. Susan had much to say on the subject of Percy, her beloved. Edna Arbuckle told them that her mother had been in the theatre.

‘Not one of the Gaiety Girls?’ Sybil asked.

‘Ooh no,’ Edna said, ‘they were rather high-up sort of girls, you know, young ladies. No, she was just an ordinary actress. More of a chorus girl. I do just remember her – she handed me over to an aunt to be brought up – in Erdington. She wanted to carry on working, you see. I suppose I was rather an inconvenience to her. And then she died – killed in a road accident.’

‘Oh dear, how sad!’ Sybil said.

Katie listened. It didn’t sound as if Edna had had much of a mother, either. She put her arm round Michael for a moment and kissed him. If there was one thing she was determined to do with her life, it was to do better for him.

When the pudding was brought in, after hours of steaming, another cheer went up.

‘Magnificent!’ Sybil said. ‘We shan’t be able to move after all this!’

‘You know,’ Piotr said suddenly, as all of them except Agnieska were eating big slabs of the pudding. ‘The first Christmas time we spent in Russia . . .’

Everyone was listening immediately. The Christmas season seemed to bring out all sorts of memories.