Peggy handed the letter to Anne. ‘Sarah was right to guess your father was being sent to Singapore,’ she said. ‘I’d better have a word with the girl this evening,’ she added fretfully. ‘God knows what she and Jane are heading into.’

8

The next few days went by in a flash, and so much had happened, Peggy was finding it hard to keep up with it all. Frank had towed her Ford down to Jack’s garage, where Rita and Peter, fresh from their weekend honeymoon, set to work to replace the chewed wiring and hoses and give the engine a thorough service. The Ford had been old and temperamental before she’d stored it for the duration of the war, and now the leather upholstery had dried and cracked, and there were signs of a mouse nest in the corner of the back seat. The large headlamps were fogged and cobwebbed by damp; the chrome trim was going rusty; the windscreen wipers shrivelled to nothing, and it needed four new tyres as well.

As the cost of all the work began to spiral, Peggy hoped she’d actually be able to afford to run it, for petrol was still rationed and expensive, and the insurance premiums were high. But she consoled herself with the thought it would mean she could visit Anne, and not have to walk home from the town in all weathers lugging her shopping.

She’d taken a day off today to make all the arrangements, and now she was now putting the finishing touches to the large top-floor bedroom where her younger sister, Doreen, and her baby, Archie, would sleep. They were due to arrive tomorrow evening in good time for the wedding on Saturday. Evelyn was now almost eleven and her sister Joyce was eight, so they were too old to be sharing with their mother. Peggy had cleared out the second basement bedroom for them and brought a cot up for little Archie, who was barely over a year old. It had meant a lot of cleaning, sorting and chucking out, but it was worth it, for she knew Doreen would love being up here with the view of the sea, and the girls would be quite safe downstairs next to Charlie.

She tweaked the freshly washed and ironed curtains so they hung straight and stared out of the window, her thoughts still occupied with all that had occurred these last few days.

Doris had also retrieved her car from Chalky’s, but it was in slightly better condition and hadn’t needed as much work doing to it, so Charlie had been in his element giving it a service during the evenings. The news that Doris was buying the bungalow from Rosie was a bit of a surprise, but Rosie seemed quite happy to be shot of it as she was now seriously planning to sell the Anchor, and the money would come in handy for when she bought a house.

Peggy thought Doris and John were being very adventurous to convert the two bungalows into one, but she didn’t envy them the expense and upheaval it would cause and it worried her a bit. Doris had already lost everything when her house in Havelock Road was bombed and she discovered her estranged husband had used it as collateral to pay off his debts to the bank, and therefore she wasn’t entitled to any compensation. Now she was borrowing money to buy the bungalow and set up home with John.