Mavis shook her head. ‘Sorry, the last I heard she was thinking about joining up, but that was over a year ago. She could be anywhere by now.’

‘Her father probably knows,’ said Ted, ‘but he’s not going to tell me, so … her grandparents?’

Mavis nodded eagerly. ‘Of course! She went to stay with her grandparents after the funeral whilst she worked out what she wanted to do.’

Ted grinned. ‘Then it’s her grandparents whom I shall see. I believe they lived on Ullet Road?’

She nodded. ‘Still do as far as I know.’

Ted thanked her profusely for her honesty. ‘I won’t tell a soul where I got my information from,’ he assured her.

A look of relief swept her face. ‘Thanks. I don’t think Campbell would be too pleased if he knew I’d been gossiping about his family.’

‘I should think not,’ Ted agreed, ‘especially when he’s worked hard to cover up the truth.’ A thought suddenly dawned on him. ‘If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have even tried to find Olivia – what would have been the point?’

‘Like I said before, he’s good at manipulating people, that’s why he’s so rich.’

Thanking Mavis for her help Ted wandered back to the men who were doing their best to steady a pillar of bricks as they tried to safely bring the wall they were working on down to the ground. An image of William Campbell formed in his mind’s eye. Now he thought about it, the older man hadn’t appeared remotely upset by the fact his daughter had had an abortion. He wondered what Olivia would say if she ever found out the truth. He knew the answer. She would be furious as well as heartbroken at the lies her father had told in order to keep the two of them apart. Well, it would serve William right to be found out, Ted concluded. He tried to remember a phrase his father used to quote when he caught Ted fibbing as a child. He nodded. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive,’ he said beneath his breath. William had dug himself a very deep hole from which he could not escape, and it was all his own doing.

Olivia stared open-mouthed as they jumped out of the lorry. ‘It’s a farm,’ she said to the WAAF MT driver who had driven them to their first site. ‘You must’ve taken a wrong turn.’

The driver shook her head. ‘Sorry, ducks, but this is your new home.’ She jerked her head in the direction of a couple of wooden huts. ‘And they’re your new billets.’

‘Oh, bugger,’ said Maude as she cast an eye around the open fields, large hangars and wooden huts.

Another truck had pulled up behind theirs and more Waafs descended, all looking just as unimpressed with their new surroundings.

Corporal Stebbins laid a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. ‘Welcome to RAF Shirehampton.’