She smiled at Peggy. ‘Good morning, everyone. Did you have a good night’s sleep, Peggy?’

‘She had a bit of a bad dream and I had to go into her,’ Edith answered for the child. ‘But you were all right once I’d tucked you in, weren’t you, pet?’ she said to the child.

Peggy nodded solemnly and flushed. She had also wet the bed, but Edith didn’t tell Sunday that. She didn’t want to embarrass the child. She seemed perfectly at ease with Sunday, Edith and Cook now but they’d all noticed that she was still very nervous around men, even Giles and John, which made them wonder if perhaps it was her father who had inflicted the bruises she had arrived with. They were beginning to fade to pale yellows and mauves now and were nowhere near as noticeable as when she’d first come there.

‘Can I come back to the lodge wi’ you an’ see the babies when yer go?’ Peggy asked suddenly and Sunday nodded.

‘Of course you can.’

Peggy was very taken with the twins and loved going to the lodge, although Sunday wondered if it was perhaps because there were no men there. The child was slowly opening up like a little flower to the sun but all of them realised that neither of the children could have had an easy time of it back in London from the very little they had said about their parents and their home life. Only the day after they had arrived Edith had noticed that Bobby had seemed very nervous about filling in the stamped postcard each child arrived with informing their parents where they were staying.

‘I bet yer ma and dad will be here to see you in no time,’ Edith had said, and Bobby had scowled.

‘Me dad won’t come an’ I doubt he’ll let me ma come eivver,’ he had said solemnly, which Edith had thought rather odd. Surely if their children were living in a strange place with strange people their parents would want to come and check everything out, but time would tell. On a few occasions she had tried to get him to speak of them but each time he had closed up like a clam, so she avoided asking anything now. As Sunday had pointed out, he would open up in his own good time and until then it was best that he was allowed to settle in with no pressure.

Giles and George came into the kitchen for their tea break, closely followed by Bobby, and instantly Peggy scampered to her brother’s side and after ramming her thumb in her mouth, she eyed the men warily.

‘I shall be going out for a couple of hours shortly,’ Giles informed them, as he took a seat at the table and lifted the mug of freshly mashed tea.