She left Daisy to eat her toast and went down to the basement to knock on Charlie’s door. ‘Get up, son. You’ve got rugby practice in an hour.’

There was a grunt and an indecipherable mutter before everything went silent again, so Peggy opened the door. ‘Get up, Charlie,’ she ordered the lump beneath the mound of tangled bedclothes.

He looked blearily over his shoulder and grunted. ‘I don’t feel well,’ he groaned.

‘That’s hardly surprising,’ she replied mildly, regarding the discarded shoes and clothes strewn about the floor. ‘A good breakfast will see to that hangover. Now stir your stumps and get out of that bed while I sort your uncle out.’

She left him to it and went to the second room which had become the repository for unwanted things that might one day be useful, and briskly rapped on the door. ‘Frank. Frank. Wake up.’

‘Go away,’ he groaned.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said flatly. ‘And if you don’t get out of that bed soon, you’ll have Pauline coming down here to find out what’s happened to you – and believe me, Frank, you don’t want that.’

Another groan was followed by the squeaking of bedsprings, and then a hefty clunk, which elicited a soft oath. Peggy gave a wry smile, for he’d obviously hit his head on the upper bunk – but at least it might bring him to his senses.

Satisfied they were both on the move, she returned to the kitchen to find Anne giving breakfast to her girls while Martin drooped over a cup of tea, and Cordelia chattered nineteen to the dozen about the wedding.

‘I was just saying how lovely our little Rita looked yesterday,’ chirped Cordelia, ‘and how lucky she is to have such a fine husband in Peter.’

‘Yes, Grandma Cordy, we know all that,’ sighed Anne. ‘But do you have to be quite so cheerful at this time of the morning?’

Cordelia sniffed. ‘You young things have got no stamina. I bet Ron’s already up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, walking the dogs.’

‘I expect he is,’ said Martin, rubbing at the still-livid scar on his temple. ‘Though how he does it after the amount of drink he got through last night is a complete mystery to me.’

Cordelia tutted and concentrated on eating her bowl of cereal while Peggy finished browning more toast on the hob and spreading margarine on another slice for Daisy.

‘You’re not alone, Martin,’ said Peggy, sitting down and patting his hand. ‘Frank and Charlie are worse for wear too, and I’ve had to take a couple of aspirin to get me going this morning.’ She glanced up at the clock. ‘But if Frank doesn’t get a move on, we’ll have Pauline storming in looking for him.’

‘Not a delightful prospect,’ muttered Cordelia. ‘But I doubt she’ll darken this door again after that fierce ticking-off you gave her.’

‘I heard it was a lot more than a ticking-off,’ rumbled Frank as he came into the room. He helped himself to a cup of tea and sat down. ‘Pauline told me Peggy had attacked her.’