‘Ooh, I’d love that,’ Em said wistfully. ‘I’ll ask – fingers crossed. We just need more room now. I couldn’t put Molly up or anything. She’s staying at Mom’s.’

‘Is your mom still determined to stay put?’

‘Oh yes – Mom won’t leave, except in her box, she says. She’s put down for one of the flats they’re building. You can hardly recognize Nechells now, with all they’re doing, changing the roads and knocking things down left, right and centre. It’s one big building site. I don’t think it’ll be the same place by the time they’ve finished.’

‘D’you think they’ll knock down the school?’ Molly asked. ‘It’d be a shame to see old Cromwell Street gone.’

‘Heaven knows,’ Em said. ‘It’s still there at the moment, but they’re letting the bulldozers loose on anything round there. Let’s hope not. The kids’ve got to go to school somewhere.’

‘And you’re back in the army?’ Katie said to Molly.

Molly smiled. ‘Yes, I’m in Signals. Look – d’you want to see our uniform?’

From her bag she produced a photograph of herself, sprucely dressed in her green WRAC uniform, her handsome face solemn, with a slight frown, as if she was listening to instructions.

‘You look magnificent,’ Katie said. She felt a growing respect for Molly, for what she had become. ‘It looks an interesting life.’

‘Oh, it is,’ Molly said. ‘It’s the life for me, anyway.’ She was bubbling over with it all.

Marek came up then and stood behind Katie, gently interrupting by putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. He nodded at the others. ‘Sybil says it is getting a bit cold. We can go in and sit inside.’

Katie reached up and took his hand. ‘All right, love,’ she said.

Marek squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll fetch the children.’

The three women walked slowly up the garden, Em still cradling Christine. Molly turned to Katie.

‘You’ll have to tell me about yourself properly, Katie.’

Startled, Katie looked round at her. She saw that Molly was genuinely interested, and in her kind, honest face she saw someone she very much wanted to get to know.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You too. I’d like that.’

Sybil was at the back door as the three of them slowly walked inside from the garden, which was now all in shadow.

‘Ah,’ she said fondly. ‘Here’s the class from Cromwell Street School!’ As they laughed she said. ‘Go along, girls – leave the men to it for a bit. You can go into the room at the back: you’ll be warmer.’

‘Thank you, Sybil,’ Katie said. ‘It’s been a lovely afternoon.’

‘And thank you, too – it’s been marvellous,’ Sybil agreed.

Katie led her friends inside to sit together in the mellow light of late afternoon, to continue a conversation that she hoped would last, now, for the rest of their lives.

All the Days of Our Lives

ANNIE MURRAY was born in Berkshire and read English at St John’s College, Oxford. Her first ‘Birmingham’ novel, Birmingham Rose, hit The Times bestseller list when it was published in 1995. She has subsequently written fourteen other successful novels. Annie Murray has four children and lives in Reading. You can visit her website at www.anniemurray.co.uk.