But Jill? Jill was different. Jill was a true innocent, born of another culture and completely without guile. Jill was a girl who lived between two worlds.

She’s at the mercy of any creep who might want to take advantage of her, Val thought. Someone like Baz, for instance. It was obvious that Baz, as promised, had made no advances, but it was equally obvious Jill remained infatuated. And if it’s not Baz, Val thought cynically, then it could be any one of how many others? There are countless men like Baz. Particularly right here and right now with troops all over town and a war on our front doorstep. These are volatile times and women are at their most vulnerable.

Val Callahan was not the only woman who worried about the volatility of the times.

‘I feel so terribly vulnerable,’ Amelia Sanderson admitted to her good friend Grace Francis as they sat in the back room of the AWU wrapping up Red Cross parcels, a duty the two shared every Saturday afternoon.

‘The house is so big and so empty and there are so many soldiers outside in the street night and day,’ she said, ‘I just don’t feel safe somehow.’ She smiled a little shamefacedly. ‘That sounds awfully indulgent of me, doesn’t it? Good heavens above, on the brink of invasion, who does feel safe!’

Amelia pushed back a lock of fair hair that threatened to impede her vision and focused her attention on the string she was tying around the parcel she’d just completed packing. She used to be so very deft with string, but her hands these days were a little shaky.

‘And Martin’s been gone for over a whole year now,’ she went on, trying to sound practical, but her voice becoming tremulous, ‘you’d think I’d be accustomed to living in an empty house, wouldn’t you?’ Her attempt at bravado was definitely crumbling. ‘But I’m not, Grace, I’m not at all accustomed to the empty house. I’m nowhere near as accustomed to it as I used to be for some strange reason.’

She pulled herself together, once again painting on a brave face. ‘I suppose it’s just the growing turmoil that surrounds us, but I do seem to get so very nervous these days.’

‘Of course you do,’ Grace said sympathetically, ‘it’s perfectly understandable and you’re not sounding indulgent at all.’