Daisy didn’t help. ‘I don’t for the life of me see why you won’t at least give him a chance and then decide if you like him or not,’ she said on more than one occasion, until Rose broke down one day and said that she did like him and that was the reason she couldn’t start a relationship with him. She poured out all her misgivings, and to give Daisy credit she did at least listen, before telling Rose she was daft.

In the spring, with business booming, Rose followed through on her plan to provide broth and hot meat pies along with the bread and cakes and so on. She rearranged the interior of the shop and added three small tables each with four chairs so that customers who bought hot food could sit and eat it on the premises if they so wished.

Alexander wished. It was the perfect excuse to linger even longer, and he made the most of it. He looked slightly incongruous sitting eating his broth or meat pie and crusty rolls among the working-class folk who frequented the shop, but he was a paying customer like everyone else and Rose felt she could hardly refuse to serve him. Besides, at heart she didn’t want to. Secretly she found herself longing for the times he was home on leave when the days seemed brighter and the world a wonderful place. Perversely, though, this only strengthened her resolve to hold him at arm’s length in spite of Amy and Daisy’s exhortations to walk out with him.

Betsy had settled well into her new home above the bakery and their furniture had fitted perfectly into the slightly smaller space. Their sitting room was cosy and bright and the small kitchen was functional, and Betsy loved her bedroom overlooking the square of back yard outside. Rose had found some wallpaper with fairies and pixies on and had got it all ready before they moved into the flat as a surprise for the child. The room was large enough to accommodate Betsy’s doll’s house and other toys besides her single bed and wardrobe, and when she and Daisy’s children got home from school they spent many happy hours playing together. Rose always insisted that Daisy and the girls had dinner with her and Betsy before they left each evening, and Amy fed the twins, so that when Daisy got home each night all she had to do was to get the girls into bed. Rose and Amy had put their heads together for ways of saving Daisy money and this was one of them, along with Amy and Frank having the little family round for lunch and tea every Sunday.