William had two days’ leave from his Intelligence – hush hush – work for the army. He looked older, thinner, with his cropped hair, and as ever, self-important. We were civil to each other, if not warm. I could see by the strained look of his face that he was cut up by Daddy’s death.

‘How’s Mother?’ he asked afterwards. He no longer said ‘Mummy’ of course.

‘Oh – you know. Hard to tell. Gladys has been a gem. She’s taken everything on.’

I was holding one of the plates of fish-paste sandwiches which Gladys Peck and I were handing round to the throng who were all trying to squeeze into the drawing-room. We had to spread them into the back room as well and the hall was lined with damp raincoats and umbrellas.

Gladys smiled and blushed, making her way past us. ‘I’m just glad to have been here at the right time,’ she said. ‘Eric, don’t take any more! There won’t be enough to go round.’ She darted off after him.

‘Extraordinary,’ William said, his eyes following her compact figure. ‘And Mummy doesn’t mind?’

‘No. She’s really hit it off with Gladys, odd as it may seem. I heard her crying the other day, and it was Gladys she allowed to see her. I found her with her arm round Mummy’s shoulders. She’s a godsend. We’d never have coped otherwise.’

I moved off to distribute sandwiches. People kept stopping to talk to me, all assuming that I knew who they were. A tiny, childlike woman in a murky green shawl seized my elbow and fixed me with watery eyes. ‘Your father was a saint my dear, a saint.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, at a loss. ‘I don’t think we’ve met.’

‘I’m Edie Webster.’ She held out her hand and I could feel the raised blue veins of her wrist against my finger tips. ‘Christian Health Quarterly. Your father wrote some inspirational papers.’

A familiar face came towards me through the crowd and I excused myself from Edie’s skeletal grasp. ‘Lisa!’ I was delighted to see her. ‘How are you – and Daisy?’

‘Oh, we’re all right – going along.’ She was wearing a patched black dress. ‘Daisy’s running around now. You’ll pay us a call soon, won’t you? I ’ad to come today – ’ She took my arm in her direct way. ‘Terrible, your Dad going like that. ’E were a good man. We’ll all miss him.’

‘Yes,’ I said, still feeling overcome. ‘So it seems. I’ve never seen most of these people before.’

‘Ah well,’ Lisa said. She touched my shoulder. ‘You can’t know everything, can you?’

This was the most comforting thing anyone had said all day. ‘It means a lot that you’re here,’ I said. ‘I’ll come and see you very soon, I promise.’

‘Please,’ she said. ‘We miss you.’

Douglas stayed until the last guests were leaving. Gladys had finally sat down with Lizzie on her lap and was gulping down a cup of tea. There was nothing on any of the plates but crumbs. Eric was dabbing at them with a wet finger which travelled urgently back and forth to his mouth.