The woman smiled sympathetically, but, as Ronnie didn’t pursue the conversation, she too dozed off, leaving Ronnie sighing with relief. It could get awkward if she started cross-examining him and asking questions. Now that they were really on their way, Ronnie was racking his brains trying hard to recall where exactly in Finsbury Park their home Gladstone Gardens actually was; he could just about remember the name of the tenement block, that is of course if it were still standing. Confident that he would find their old home once he was back on familiar territory, Ronnie next worried if he would, in fact, find his dad.

Ronnie vividly remembered leaving Finsbury Park, half dragging Rosie to Euston Station. There was smoke and rubble dust everywhere, from bombed-out houses and tenement blocks, to stinking roads swimming with sewage leaked from smashed drains. What would he and Sally do if his mission to be reunited with his dad failed? Go back to Hope Farm and the happy Larkin family? Get into more trouble with the police for running away and endangering his little sister in the process? Ronnie felt a stab of guilt as he thought of his poor mum lying in bed worrying herself sick about her children. He was startled from his reverie by a gentle touch on his shoulder.

‘My stop’s coming up,’ the lady they had befriended said softly. ‘I hope you don’t get held up too much on the way – trains are awful these days,’ she fretted. ‘Anyway, I’ve had a word with the guard, and he’s promised me that once you get to London, he’ll see you safely off the train.’

‘Thanks again, missis,’ Ronnie mumbled.

Nodding towards little Sally still curled up and fast asleep on the carriage seat, she added, ‘Say goodbye to Sally for me, and good luck with finding your dad.’

Ronnie felt cold and quite alone when the lady disembarked, and, yawning widely, he snuggled up on the seat next to his sister, where he too fell into a deep sleep as the train thundered on through the long, dark night.

The sleeping children were rudely awakened when the train shunted into a siding and stood there for hours for no obvious reason. When it did move on, it stopped at every station along the way, picking up troops who wearily crowded into the corridors and compartments, some falling asleep where they stood, others smoking and singing. They finally reached their destination just as a misty cold dawn was breaking over Euston Station. Almost too exhausted to stand, Sally leant against her brother as the guard ferried them on to the heaving platform, where he waved them goodbye.

‘Now what?’ yawned Sally.

‘Get the bus home,’ Ronnie told her.