Peggy arrived back at Beach View almost three hours later, cold, wet and thoroughly fed up. The car had refused to start for some reason, and she’d had to lug her shopping home after standing about in the teeming rain for half the morning only to discover there were to be no surprises from under the counter, and little choice in the meat and fish. Sam the grocer was charging an arm and a leg for potatoes which she really begrudged, but then Ron’s spuds had rotted in the ground, so she’d had little choice in the matter.

She pulled off her sodden hat and coat, shook them out and left them on the coat rack in the basement with her umbrella. Trudging up the steps with her shopping, she hoped the kettle was on as she was gagging for a cuppa and a fag after that ordeal.

‘Hello, Mum,’ said Charlie cheerfully. ‘I managed to get nearly everything on the list, but was a halfpenny short for the tin of baked beans, and that new chap at the Home and Colonial wouldn’t let me off it although I promised to go straight back and pay it.’

‘Tight as a tick that one,’ said Cordelia with a grimace, looking up from Daisy’s colouring book. ‘Doris’s Ted might have been a gambler and womaniser, but he was always fair with his customers.’

Peggy began transferring the butter, cheese, fish and meat to her new refrigerator, placing the bottle of Daisy’s free orange juice next to the milk in the door compartment. The fresh vegetables and five-pound bag of potatoes went into her new rack on the worktop. She lifted the lid on the bread bin to find Charlie had managed to get two loaves.

‘I hope you got more packets of tea and cereal, Charlie. The speed we get through them is astonishing.’

‘They’re all in the cupboard with the marmalade and tins of Spam and pilchards.’ He grinned at her as she sat down to her cup of tea and lit a cigarette. ‘I’m still trying to find my way round this kitchen, and keep forgetting we don’t have a larder. We’re so posh now; poor Dad will think he’s come to the wrong house.’

‘I doubt that,’ said Peggy wearily. ‘He’ll be so glad to be back with his family he probably won’t notice. It’s us he won’t recognise,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘If Bob’s changed as much as you, then he’ll have a hard time of it. And of course Daisy was just a babe in arms when he left for India.’

‘What time is Bob due to arrive?’ asked Charlie. ‘We kick off at two-thirty, so if he’s early enough he might come and watch me play.’

‘Well, he might,’ said Peggy doubtfully, ‘but he’s not in until three and if it’s still raining hard I expect he’ll come straight here.’

Charlie snorted. ‘Bob’s used to being out in all weathers, so a bit of rain won’t bother him.’ He pushed back from the table, grabbed his gabardine mac and tweed cap, and picked up his holdall containing his rugby kit. ‘I’m having lunch with Grandad and Rosie, so I’ll see you after the match.’