Maggie had put away the last of the dinner things. She hung her cloth on a line to dry, then came and leant against the sink, which Janet was scrubbing down.

“Did you want to go in the W.R.N.S.?”

“Yes, if I’d done anything. You see, I hadn’t thought of stopping here.”

Maggie took Janet’s chin in her hand and turned her face towards her.

“Had you set your heart on going? You’d been crying, hadn’t you?”

Janet grinned.

“Yes, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.”

“Was it about missing the W.R.N.S.?”

“Yes.”

“Are you doing this for me?”

Janet moved her head.

“Can I have my chin back and finish cleaning your sink?”

“Not until you’ve answered my question.”

Janet swung round and faced her mother.

“If you must know, yes. I think you’re too thin, and I love you too much to want to come home and find that you’ve slipped down the pipe with the bath water.”

“Your being here won’t make me fat, darling.”

“That’s all you know.” Janet turned back to the sink. “You’ll be surprised what’s going to happen to you. Probably bed; certainly a long chair in the garden, and not getting up until eleven. Tonics and milk and eggs and . . .”

Maggie’s voice was sharp.

“I’m not seeing the doctor.”

“Oh, yes, you are. Fair’s fair. I love you better than the W.R.N.S., so for love of me you can give up your old-fashioned ideas that doctors are only required when one is dying. I don’t suppose he’ll find much the matter with you, but there’ll be something wrong if I let you get any thinner.”

“If I promised to take things a little easier, wouldn’t that satisfy you?”

“It would not. I know you, you’re a bad old woman, and this weak daughter could never keep you in order; you need a savage doctor for that.”

Maggie let the point drop for the moment.

“You know, dear, I shouldn’t like you to give up the W.R.N.S. if you’ve set your heart on joining. It may be that it’s the right thing for you, and missing the experience is something you’ll regret all your life.”

Janet had finished the sink. She dried her hands and took off her apron. She spoke with conviction.

“Staying here is the right thing for me.” She hooked her arm through her mother’s. “Do you remember Mrs. Rose at the cake shop at home, how she used to say, ‘It’s meant, Mrs. Brain. It’s meant.’”

Section 4