Charlie wandered in from his practice session at the rugby club to find them drowning their sorrows. He cheerfully plucked Daisy from his Uncle Frank’s lap and carried her off to her bed, staying long enough to read her a story.

Then it was all hands to the task of putting the house straight – or as straight as they could get it. Because the ferrets were Ron’s, he’d been tasked with cleaning up the poo. Peter tidied up the kitchen, and then went to help the others in Cordelia’s room. Andy remade the bed while Jack tried to mend the lamp and smooth out the dents in the shade while Martin picked up the scattered hairpins, bottles and jars, and Charlie did his best to repair the hatboxes and put the hats away. The straw hat had been well and truly trampled by Harvey, and there was now a definite hole in the crown.

‘I can’t mend this, Grandad,’ he said, holding the hat up. ‘What on earth are we going to do about it?’

‘Put it in a box and shove the lot on top of the wardrobe,’ said Ron, his wet jumper still clinging unpleasantly to him. ‘I’ll buy her a new one.’

‘But what if she was planning to wear it tomorrow?’

‘We’ll just have to hope she isn’t,’ he retorted. He looked round the room, relieved that nothing important had been broken. ‘Come on. We’ve done all we can, and it’s almost time for the women to get home. We don’t want them catching us up here, for it’ll be the wrath of God on our heads if they do.’

He saw his grandson’s frown and put an arm about his shoulder. ‘Ach, Charlie, it’ll be all right. To be sure, Cordy and your wee mam will be fine about it all. You’ll see.’

Charlie was clearly not sure about that – and truth be told, neither was Ron. But they’d already missed at least three hours of good drinking time, and Ron wasn’t about to dwell on such things.

Peggy had enjoyed a wonderful few hours of singing and dancing and catching up on all of Fran and Mary’s news. Rosie had called time and Brenda had gone home, but the Beach View women remained at the table, reluctant to end the happy evening, even though it would be an early start in the morning.

Anne made the first move. ‘I’m going home to check that Martin got the girls to bed all right,’ she said. ‘They can be a bit of a handful when they’re over-excited, and he still finds it difficult to cope with all their noise.’

Peggy kissed her goodnight, and twenty minutes later rounded up the others. ‘Time for bed,’ she said as the hall clock struck eleven and she noticed Cordelia was drooping with weariness next to her. ‘You have a very big day ahead of you, Rita, and Cordy and I need our beauty sleep if we’re going to be in any fit state to enjoy your wedding.’