‘I know, lass. It’s hard for everyone, but we have to let the young ones go. It’s why we fought this war, so they could be free to get on with their lives.’ He held her arms and beamed down at her. ‘Just remember all the good times, Peg, and look forward to having your Jim home again.’

Peggy shot him a brave, tearful smile. ‘Bless you, Stan. Of course I will. Now I’d better get home. Poor Cordelia’s really cut up about the girls leaving, and Daisy will be waking up and wondering where I’ve got to.’

Sarah took Jane’s hand and held it tightly as the train huffed and puffed its way along the coast towards Southampton. Leaving Peggy, Cordelia and Beach View hadn’t been as hard or painful as leaving their parents and Philip in Singapore, but it was a close-run thing, and neither girl felt much like talking.

They’d sat with their own thoughts while the train carried them further and further away from the only home they’d known since coming to England, and as they drew nearer to the flying boat terminal, their focus became fixed on the long journey ahead of them.

‘I don’t know about you, Sarah, but I’ve got butterflies in my stomach,’ said Jane as they got their first sight of the flying boat waiting by the dock.

‘I feel the same, but I’m not sure if it’s fear or excitement. At least the plane looks nice and sturdy, so that’s quite comforting.’

The train drew to a halt at the newly built terminal, and the girls stepped down onto the platform with their cases. They looked at one another and linked hands. ‘This is it,’ breathed Sarah. ‘Are you ready?’

‘As ready as I’ll ever be,’ replied Jane. ‘Let’s get on with it.’

Almost an hour later they joined the other twelve passengers in the comfortably furnished cabin to wait nervously for the plane to take off. Within minutes, the engines spluttered into life and began to roar as the propellers turned faster and faster until they were just a blur.

Jane and Sarah clutched each other’s hands in fear and excitement as the flying boat began to glide across the water, so swiftly that great jets of water rose on both sides from beneath the broad floats. And then they were lifting into the air and soaring above the Solent and the Isle of Wight.

The girls looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally on their way home.

Despite her hurried departure from the station, Peggy took her time going home, not yet ready to face Cordelia or Daisy and the busy day she would have at the factory. She drove down to the seafront and parked the car, then climbed out and went to sit on one of the newly repaired benches.

Lighting a cigarette, she tried to relax and prepare herself for Cordelia’s tears, Daisy’s chattering, and the long list of things she had to do. She gazed out to the horizon where the last vestiges of the sunrise streaked the pearly sky with slashes of pink and orange which were reflected in the Channel waters. Yet despite the beauty of this early morning, the pink sky heralded rain, and as she sat there, she could smell the tang of it in the strengthening breeze that was now tugging at her hair.