‘I got three letters from him before he was killed on the Somme and I never got the chance to tell him he was to be a father. Maybe it was for the best in a way, because I was dreadfully ill after we’d heard he’d been killed and I – I lost the baby.’ There was a haunted look in her eyes now.

‘Did – did me dad know?’

‘Not at the time,’ Mrs Godfrey put in. ‘When Jonathan came home wounded, Peg was over the worst, except that she was thin and dreadfully unhappy. He was worried enough about her, as it was. But after the war, when he was home for good, well, we told him then.’

‘So you see, Kate,’ Peggy said softly, ‘we do understand. I would have given anything – anything – if I could have kept that baby and brought it up – wedding ring or no wedding ring. I would have had something left of Michael.’

Kate eyes went to Mrs Godfrey. As if reading her unspoken question, the woman nodded. ‘Yes, her father and I stood by her,’ she said softly. ‘We’d have brought the little one up, if it had lived.’

The lump in Kate’s throat was so large, she found it impossible to speak.

‘So,’ Peggy said gently, ‘we feel – Mother and me – that it’s as if we’ve been given a second chance. Do you see?’

Kate nodded. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘And I’m so very grateful.’

Mrs Godfrey suddenly slapped her hand on to her lap, rattling the cup in the saucer.

‘Careful, Mother, you’ll spill that.’ Peggy jumped up to rescue the wobbling cup.

‘I’ve just had a wonderful idea.’ Mrs Godfrey beamed at the other two. ‘When you leave the WAAFs, Kate, why don’t you start dressmaking again?’

‘Oh, but I couldn’t expect you to look after the baby all day while I go out to work . . .’

‘I don’t mean that. I mean here, in the front room, just like I used to do. There’s folks crying out for it now, wanting their old clothes made over because of the rationing. They still knock on my door even now, at my age, asking if I “couldn’t just sew this seam up, Mrs Godfrey . . .” You know they do, Peg.’

‘Well, it’s whether Kate wants to . . .’

As Peggy turned back to look at her, Kate knew the answer was plainly written in her shining eyes and her wide smile. ‘Want to! Oh, I’d love it. It was the sight of your room when I visited from school that made me take up sewing and dressmaking in the first place.’

‘Was it really?’ Mrs Godfrey laughed aloud. ‘Well, who would have thought it, all my clutter inspiring you like that!’

Peggy was smiling too. ‘Well, that’s settled then.’