Isobel eyed him sharply, but Ted no longer cared if she flounced off in a bad mood. He had been right. Isobel was only interested in what he could give her. He feared he was trapped in a loveless marriage with someone who wasn’t bothering to hide it any more.

Now, as he sat reading his transfer papers, his thoughts turned to Toff. As soon as he got to Speke he would make a few enquiries, see if anyone knew what had become of his first love. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since he had seen her last. What would be the harm in a quick hello?

By the spring of 1940 much had changed in the Campbell household. The factory had switched production from engine parts for cars to parts for heavy bombers, and with so many being shot down, the demand was high.

Olivia’s mother’s condition had deteriorated to the point where she was struggling to breathe and it was plain for all to see that she was not long for this world.

Olivia had hoped that her father would make more of an effort to be with his wife around this time, but every time she brought the matter up, he would say he was too busy with work, and that he would if he could. One evening she visited the factory on an errand. She had expected to find her father in the thick of things, telling workers what to do or wading his way through reams of paperwork, but instead he was sitting in his office doing a crossword in the Echo. She bit her tongue to stop herself saying that she was glad to see he was keeping himself busy with important war work, because she knew he would weasel his way out of it somehow, probably by saying that it was the first break he had had all day, and of course Olivia couldn’t prove otherwise.

Many years had passed since the birth of her baby, and she was no longer a naive and frightened fourteen-year-old, but a thirty-year-old woman who could see things for how they were. Gone were all thoughts that her father was trying to protect her from Ted, because Olivia now knew better. If Ted had been the son of one of his snooty pals, her father would have welcomed him with open arms, especially if the marriage paved the way for a new and lucrative business deal.