‘I just don’t know what to do,’ she had confided to Ruth during their conversation on the beach when Ruth had encouraged her to make more of herself. ‘I don’t know how to go about things.’

‘Well,’ Ruth had said, considering the matter, ‘why don’t you move to somewhere where you can go to night school? If you’ve got a job – any job’ll do really – you can make a start like that. And it could lead to something better.’

‘But what?’ Molly had asked gloomily. She had truly felt in those days that nothing she did would ever lead to anything better.

‘Well . . .’ Ruth was beginning to sound just a bit exasperated. ‘The thing is, you can’t always tell where something might lead. But one thing’s for sure: if you don’t do anything, it can’t lead anywhere much, can it?’

Molly couldn’t argue with this logic.

‘What are the things you’re best at – I mean, when you were at school?’

‘I suppose . . . Sums. I always got along all right with those. And the Gorgon did tell me once that I’d come near the top in the tests we did when we joined up.’ Molly blushed with pleasure, recounting this.

‘Did you?’ Ruth turned to her in pleased surprise. ‘You’ve never told me that before!’

‘Yes – she said I’d not done much less well than you and Win.’ Molly was rather enjoying this.

‘Well, I’m blowed – that’s marvellous, Molly! All the more reason for you to get on and do something, instead of just drifting.’

When the last summer season ended Molly had returned to London, on a wave of confidence and determination. She found herself the digs with Mrs Hodgkins and a job in the Cottage Tea Rooms on the Strand. She swallowed her pride and went to see Phoebe Morrison, who helped her find a place where she could do evening classes, and she decided to sign up for shorthand and typing one evening, and a class to improve her arithmetic on another.

‘That’ll keep me busy Tuesdays and Thursdays,’ she said. ‘And I expect there’ll be homework.’ She found she was very nervous. Would she be able to keep up with it? Was she about to make a gigantic fool of herself? But she was also excited: this was a new beginning. Surely she could find some of her old army confidence and make it work? Having the support of some of her old friends helped, too. Ruth wrote and said she was delighted to hear what Molly was up to, and Phoebe Morrison, ever practical, was a great help. They also met up with Win, from time to time.

‘I’m so pleased!’ Win beamed, when Molly told of her plans. And Molly could see she meant it. In the old days she would have felt spoken down to, and foolish. Now she could just accept that Win was really glad for her.