More Dutch courage. She found she needed it more and more as Lissy was growing up.

Briony saw Kerry toss back another drink and made a mental note to have a word with her. She was drinking a lot lately. Her eyes strayed to Marcus and Bernie. Now there was a match made in heaven if ever she saw one. They’d be married before long. She smiled as she thought of it.

Molly was still cooing over the twins and Briony smiled again. It was six months since Eileen had been laid to rest and the boys were now two fat healthy babies. The hurt of bereavement had lessened with them in the house. Briony had opened the Manor, which was going great guns, and now she smiled at Mariah as she thought how lucky she was. She had her health and she had money, plenty of it, and was making more by the day. She also had two little boys to care for, and if at times like this she thought of another little boy, it was now a bitter-sweet remembering. Danny Boy and Boysie had done a lot to assuage her guilt and hurt. But one day she would have Ben too, she was determined on that. One day he would know who she was.

Cissy came into the room, flushed and excited. ‘The Barking and Dagenham Post’s outside. They want a picture for the paper!’

Briony laughed as they all put on their hats and coats and trooped outside to her front garden.

The photographer lined them all up, with Briony in the centre, the two boys asleep in her arms. Her face was almost obscured by a large-brimmed hat. Beside her stood her mother on one side, and Jonathan, the real reason for the photograph, on the other. The rest of the family, including Mrs Horlock and Cissy, gathered around them. Kerry, also a celebrity, stood smiling while trying to hold a struggling Lissy in her arms as the flash went off with a loud crash followed by a blinding light.

The picture was the talk of Barking for a long time, and Briony kept a framed copy on her mantelpiece for the rest of her life. Every time she looked at it she would smile sadly. The only person missing was Eileen.

Briony laughed and joked through the rest of the day. Late in the evening, though, as she sat with Jonathan, she heard the twins cry. Leaping from her seat, she bolted from the room, leaving Jonathan staring after her and Bernadette and Marcus laughing.

The pattern was already set. The twins called, and Briony came running.

BOOK THREE - 1947

BOOK THREE

1947

‘Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made’

- Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804

‘He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent’

-Proverbs, 29, xviii

‘Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!’