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Chapters (84)
  1. All the Days of Our Lives
  2. 1945
  3. 1931-1944
  4. I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. 1946
  28. II
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. III
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. IV
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. V
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Thirty-Four
  44. Thirty-Five
  45. VI
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. 1948-1949
  49. VII
  50. Thirty-Eight
  51. Thirty-Nine
  52. Forty
  53. VIII
  54. Forty-One
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. IX
  58. Forty-Four
  59. Forty-Five
  60. Forty-Six
  61. X
  62. Forty-Seven
  63. Forty-Eight
  64. Forty-Nine
  65. Fifty
  66. Fifty-One
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. Fifty-Three
  69. Fifty-Four
  70. XI
  71. Fifty-Five
  72. Fifty-Six
  73. XII
  74. Fifty-Seven
  75. Fifty-Eight
  76. XIII
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. XIV
  79. Sixty
  80. XV
  81. Sixty-One
  82. Sixty-Two
  83. 1953
  84. All the Days of Our Lives

‘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.