She glanced around the room; it was a cosy little sitting room where Rob’s grandmother spent most of her time now, dozing, knitting or reading. It seemed a dull life to Ella’s mind, totally different from that of her own gran who was on the go from six in the morning until ten at night, and yet Grandma Eland seemed contented enough. She had her family close by, all her own belongings around her, her memories. Ella’s glance took in the pictures on the wall, the ornaments on the mantelpiece, the shabby furniture that had served a lifetime. Behind her, the carved wooden cuckoo clock whirred as a prelude to striking and then the tiny door flapped open and the bird appeared, ‘cuckoo-ed’ five times and shot back in again, the door snapping shut. Grandma Eland snored on. Ella smiled and turned to look at the clock standing on its white, lace-edged runner on the sideboard behind her. On either side were framed photographs: one of Uncle Danny in RAF uniform and a family group taken on Danny and Rosie’s wedding day. The bride was slim and very pretty, dressed in a costume with a spray of flowers pinned to her lapel and carrying a small bouquet. No white wedding in wartime, Ella thought sympathetically, as she bent to look closer. There were Danny and Rosie in the centre with Grandma Eland to one side. Standing next to her was a serious-looking man, with a full beard covering so much of his face that it was difficult to see his expression. That must be Rob’s grandad, she thought, the man he was named after – Robert Eland. She remembered being told that he had been killed only a few days after the wedding, when Danny and Rosie were away on honeymoon. Poor man, Ella thought. When that picture had been taken, he had only a few more days to live. On the other side of the bride and groom in the photograph stood Walter and Enid Maine, Rosie’s parents, and behind them . . . Now that was strange, Ella thought, she was sure it was her own gran and grandpa. She scanned the tiny faces in the picture once more, but there was no sign of the one person she had expected to see there – her own mother, Kate. But fancy her gran attending an Eland wedding!