Terrified that she was going to lose them as soon as she had found them, Sybil quickly added, ‘I swear I am not lying this time. I did before,’ she readily admitted, ‘but this time I am telling God’s honest truth. Your mother has become my friend, which is why I want to help her. She’s too poorly to come all this way to fetch you, so I’m doing it instead.’

Staring into their little faces, Sally’s frightened, Ronnie’s wary, Sybil felt thoroughly ashamed of herself. ‘I behaved badly, for which I apologize,’ she confessed. ‘I just want to make things right now.’

The arrival of the welcome food stopped any further grumblings and accusations. Ronnie wolfed back everything on his plate, then asked for suet pudding and custard, after which he enquired, ‘How do we get back to Mary Vale? We’ve no money.’

‘I’ve got some money – I can pay for your fares,’ Sybil told him.

‘Do we not have to hide in the luggage van any more?’ innocent Sally asked.

Sybil hid a smile. ‘No, we’ll travel in style,’ she promised. ‘If you can find it in yourselves to come with me, I can get you back to Mary Vale.’

After the children had eaten their fill and Sybil had paid the bill, she suggested they got a taxi to the station, but, standing on the kerbside outside the café, Sybil anxiously wondered if any cab would, in fact, stop for a heavily pregnant woman accompanied by two children who looked like vagabonds. Luckily a cab eventually pulled up and, after being dropped off at Euston, the three of them made their way through the teeming station, which was by now stifling hot. In all the clamorous commotion Sybil stopped for a second, aware of a sharp stabbing pain at the base of her spine, strong enough to make her gasp.

Steadying herself against a grubby brick wall, Sybil studied the platform notices.

‘Over there,’ she pointed. ‘Up the stairs and over the bridge.’

Leading the children up and down two steep flights of stairs left Sybil feeling faint and weak. The heaving sea of servicemen with large duffel bags thrown over their shoulders seemed impenetrable, but, seeing her condition and the two kiddies at her side, the crowd parted just enough to allow them to board the train. After finding seats in a packed, smoky compartment, Sybil was grateful to be finally sitting down and groaned as Sally, shy of all the strange men, squashed in beside her, squeezing her distended tummy in the process.