Burying himself against his mother’s scrawny breast, Ronnie hugged her tightly. ‘I won’t do it again, Mum,’ he promised.

Sally, who was getting tired, whispered, ‘Can we sleep in the hospital with you tonight, Mother?’

Rosie smiled. ‘I think we’d all roll out of this narrow bed,’ she joked. ‘I’m sure Matron won’t mind if you stay a little longer, but later on you must go back to Hope Farm.’

Sally suddenly brightened up at the prospect of returning to the farm. ‘I like it there,’ she volunteered; yawning, she added, ‘I love the kittens and the cows.’

‘I know you do – Mrs Larkin’s a very kind lady,’ Rosie said gratefully.

‘How about you, son?’ she asked, as she turned to Ronnie, who was staring at the ceiling. ‘Do you mind going back to Hope Farm?’

‘It’s okay, but I hope that you won’t have to be here too much longer, now that you’ve had the baby,’ Ronnie said with a wobble in his voice. ‘When can we all be together, like you just said, a family again?’

Desperately trying not to think of the baby she had lost, and what her children had put themselves through on behalf of their broken family, Rosie swallowed hard. She would grieve for the baby she had loved later when Ronnie and Sally were gone; right now she had to hold the situation together if only for their sakes.

‘I’ve been thinking of just that myself,’ Rosie admitted.

‘We haven’t got a house in Finsbury Park any more,’ Sally chipped in. ‘The Germans blew it up.’

‘I know they did, lovie,’ Rosie agreed. ‘We can’t go back to London until Hitler stops dropping bombs on the city.’

‘So how will our dad ever find us if he does come looking for us?’ Sally asked nervously.

‘The people who look after evacuees know where we are; they’ll make contact with us when Dad comes home.’ Feeling exhausted by all the questioning combined with the overwhelming relief of having her children close, Rosie slumped against her pillows. ‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?’ she murmured. ‘For the moment let’s just thank God we’re all here, safe and sound.’

Wrapped around each other on the hospital bed, the three of them drifted off to sleep, a little family reunited once more.

38. The Truth Hurts

When Sybil woke up from her deep sleep, she couldn’t at first ascertain where she was; her first thought was, ‘Oh, God, am I on a train?’