Queenie hugged Viv. ‘No point worrying about it. What will be will be. No way am I being evacuated again though. I’m fifteen now, old enough to go to work and make my own decisions.’

Viv hugged her big sister. ‘I don’t wanna be sent away again either. I want to stay with you. If we’re gonna die, I’d rather us die together. I wouldn’t wanna live without ya.’

‘Cheerful pair, ain’t we?’ Queenie grinned. ‘And for the record, I wouldn’t want to live without you either.’

Once Viv left for school, Queenie sat out in the back yard with her book. Their useless Anderson shelter had now been dismantled and taken away, so there was room to sunbathe once again.

A gorgeous day in May, Queenie put her book down and closed her eyes. She always found it therapeutic when she could hear the birds singing. Life wasn’t too bad at the moment. In fact, it had turned out to be a godsend they’d rented out half their house.

After spending the school holidays with Aunt Edna last summer, Queenie and Viv had returned home. It was awful. The living conditions were cramped and their father would roll home drunk every night, waking everybody up.

Queenie begged her mum to chuck her father out. So did Aunt Edna, but her mum wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Your father is a war hero and a cripple. I can’t throw him out on the streets. Whatever would people think of me?’ were her mum’s exact words.

Then one night it all kicked off big style. Queenie witnessed her father trying to strangle her mother and couldn’t help but retaliate. The iron poker was the nearest object, so Queenie picked it up and repeatedly whacked it as hard as she could against her dad’s bad leg.

After that, Queenie, her mum and Viv all went to live with Aunt Edna. But then her dad gave up the drink again, and her mum moved back home on the understanding that if Dad fell off the wagon, she would leave him for good.

Queenie flatly refused to return home and told her mother in no uncertain terms that she and Viv would be staying at Aunt Edna’s. Her mother called a truce. The girls could sleep at Aunt Edna’s, provided they came home for their meals and told the neighbours they were only staying at Aunt Edna’s because it was now too cramped at home.

The arrangement had worked out well. Queenie loved sleeping at Aunt Edna’s and still got to see her mum and Mrs O’Leary every day.

Queenie’s bond with Mrs O’Leary had grown stronger than ever. Ivan’s murder had never been mentioned by either of them since the police had visited her and Viv. She’d done the talking, explaining that she’d spent more time with Ivan than her younger sister, and had calmly told the police Ivan had disclosed to her that he had a few enemies in the village whom he was scared of, but had never given her a reason or any names. The police toddled off quite happily with that information and hadn’t returned since.