They’d all been amazed at this from Billy, and at the transformation in him. He was nothing like they remembered. Not now, after his walk with Ella. Now he was the brother they had always wanted, and although he was only a half-brother to them all, they loved and looked up to him.

Sibbie glanced at Billy and Roderick, looking wonderful in their suits – such handsome men, standing at the door greeting everyone.

‘Let’s do this, girls. Let’s shout to the world how much we love our men.’

Marjie and Rosie didn’t miss her meaning and both giggled again, as they had done out of earshot of Betsy, who was telling them they didn’t know what they were in for, but they’d be very happy when they found out. They’d thought it the most hilarious teaching about the birds and the bees they’d ever heard, but were reassured that they had kept their secret trysts just that – secret.

‘Aye, we’ll do that. Follow me, girls.’

There the frivolity ended for a while as the organ struck up the wedding march, and the handsome men at the altar turned around to smile at them. Sibbie swallowed the lump in her throat to see Paulo standing there proudly. It had taken a long time to receive his false leg, but once it had arrived, he’d worked day and night to master it, sometimes making his stump bleed, until her mum had made him a soft, cushioned sock for it, which had stopped it chafing him. Next to him stood Freddy, Marjie’s brother and her own cousin, whom Paulo had chosen to be his best man. Sibbie loved Freddy. He was a gentle person, who she remembered always had his head in a music book or sat playing the piano. It had been difficult to imagine him fighting in the army, but he’d become a hero and had received the George Cross. She was so proud of him.

Then there was William – Wills – handsome in a debonair way, every inch the aristocrat, but so very nice. His parents were here, under duress. It was unheard of that one of their family should be married anywhere but in a cathedral! For all that, they were a nice old couple.