She took a deep breath of the lovely smell of fresh paint and, with a smile of quiet satisfaction, went down the concrete steps to the basement.

She almost had to pinch herself at the transformation down here, for gone was the old sink, mangle and boiler, and an archway now led into what had once been Charlie’s room. This bright, white space was now home to more worktops and cupboards which hid the new boiler and all her mops, brooms, buckets and cleaning materials. There was a new stone sink with brass taps – and in pride of place beneath it was her twin-tub washing machine.

She touched it lovingly as she regarded the new linoleum, the light switches and the floor-to-ceiling cupboard which now housed her ironing board and fancy electric iron. The washing machine and iron were being paid for by instalments, but they were worth every last penny, for now Saturday mornings were much freer, and she’d at last been able to donate the hated mangle and old-fashioned irons to the WVS.

But the real transformation was in the front basement room which had become the repository for junk ever since her boys had been evacuated, and Peggy still thought she must be dreaming every time she opened the door.

The plumber had fitted a pristine white lavatory and basin which gleamed in the sunlight pouring through the narrow rectangular window. Frank had half-tiled the room and painted the rest white which made the blue of the tiles really stand out. Blue linoleum covered the floor and Danuta and Stanislaw had very generously given her a bale of hand towels in exactly the same colour. A blind could be rolled down over the window, and there was a radiator to keep the room warm and free from damp.

‘Peggy? Are you down there again? Surely you know what it looks like by now?’

She laughed and hurried back to the kitchen. ‘I certainly do, Cordy, but I just can’t resist looking at it all.’

Cordelia tutted and picked up the doll Daisy had just dropped. ‘I don’t know, Peggy Reilly, you’re like a child in a sweet shop. I dread to think how much it all must have cost.’

Peggy kissed her cheek. ‘Not as much as it might have done if I’d had all the changes I wanted,’ she said lightly before hugging Daisy. ‘Good morning, darling. Isn’t it a lovely day?’

Daisy frowned and hitched her doll under her arm. ‘It’s raining, Mum.’

‘Is it?’ She glanced out of the window and giggled. ‘I suppose it is, but it feels as if the sun’s shining in here now it’s all so lovely and bright.’

She quickly poured some cereal into a bowl as Daisy clambered onto the kitchen chair and added just enough milk to make it edible. The rationing was really beginning to bite now, with potatoes and bread at a premium because of the wet summer and autumn they’d had, and even though there were fewer of them to feed, it was becoming more and more difficult to be imaginative with what she could get in the shops. Christmas was only two days away, and she’d been fretting over how on earth she’d manage to put a decent meal on the table even though the others were helping out with food stamps and odds and ends.