I didn’t see Olivia all that year and only heard from her occasionally. My letter telling her of Angus’s departure and our plans to marry provoked a brief note of congratulation. The year sped past. We were all so taken up by the war and all I could do was to hope she was safe. It wasn’t until November 1941 that I knew she was home. A freezing, windy day, the breath clouding back from her face as she stood on the step in Chantry Road.

‘Olivia?’ My face must have shown blankness or astonishment.

‘That’s not much of a greeting.’ She gave me a self-conscious smile. ‘Didn’t your mother tell you I’d called yesterday?’

She must have forgotten. Typical of her, to have let something so important to me slip her mind. Both my parents were, as usual, busy.

‘No. I’m sorry, Livy.’ I laughed, suddenly full of delight, and tried to hug her. ‘It’s so amazingly good to see you – it’s been such a long time. Are you on leave?’

‘Not exactly,’ she said abruptly.

I was full of questions, but Olivia stood stiffly in my embrace, and as she walked in past me I took in her extreme thinness and the exhausted sag of her face. Her black coat made her skin look very white and she coughed as her lungs met the warmer air of the house.

We sat in the living-room drinking tea. Livy toyed with the spoon on her saucer.

‘You look terrible. Have you been ill?’

She crossed one bony leg over the other, a tight gesture. ‘Yes – a touch of pneumonia.’ She spoke lightly. ‘The dear old navy took pity on me and sent me home to recuperate for a couple of weeks. I think I was really on the mend by the time I got here, though. Mummy and Daddy have been clucking over me of course, poor darlings.’

‘Why poor?’ I said tersely. ‘It’s not them who’ve been ill.’

‘Oh, they seem to be missing me rather a lot. The centre of their lives taken away by the war and all that . . . Actually – ’ She looked warily at me, then shifted her gaze down to her lap. ‘They were asking after you. They wondered if you’d come round some time, just for tea or something. It’s been a long time, Katie. It’d be so nice to have you in the house again.’

‘You could have let me know you were ill.’ My voice softened. ‘I’d have come to see you before.’

‘Oh – ’ she brushed this aside. ‘They were told to keep me very quiet and rested. Of course they always follow doctors’ orders to the letter. Anyway, darling – tell me what you’ve been doing, won’t you?’

‘I’m doing my Health Visitor’s training. I’ve written that to you, if you remember.’ Clearly she didn’t. I poured more tea, putting plenty of sugar in Olivia’s. ‘That’s since September. Before that I did my midwifery experience.’