The way he said it made my stomach drop, but I told myself I was reading too much into it. I sat up and fanned myself with the card before sticking it in a drawer. I shooed Roy out with nothing more than a kiss.

‘I’ve got a dress to take in, and you can’t see it until you show up at the wedding,’ I said, pushing him towards the door. And when the door was shut I sat down on the floor, arms around my knees, and let the tears come.

I guess I’d imagined Roy just taking me away, but I hadn’t thought of where. Maybe the America of Hollywood. Family didn’t come into my thoughts—at least not his—but now his would be mine. His family, his country, his life. A cold place with a woman who hated me before she’d even met me. A foreign place where I didn’t know the rules. And now it was all in motion.

You make your bed, you lie in it.

The dress alone would walk me down the aisle. The others would hold me to it. I had given one of the last things that was mine to give.

My word.

•

The wedding was at the Abbey on Bridge Road, only a few blocks from us: a Presbyterian church where my mother had gone every Sunday for services since we moved to Forest Lodge, mostly on her own. The pastor said we were on at three o’clock and not to be late. There had been no time to send out invitations so we rang everyone we wanted to invite and hoped they could come at such short notice.

On Saturday morning I put my dress in the garment bag and packed my small overnight case. Dad picked me up in his delivery truck, honking his horn until Mrs Mulligan shouted and slammed her window shut. If it was loud enough to wake her, the Japs had probably heard it too.

We went to fetch Dot, and her mother helped her carry the wedding cake to the truck.

‘I’ve been up half the night,’ Dot said. ‘What do you think?’

Tiny pink and green icing-sugar roses decorated the two-tiered cake.

‘Oh, it’s just beautiful. Where did you find the roses?’

‘I made them.’

‘Dad, isn’t she brilliant?’

Dad just grunted and shifted the truck into gear.