‘I’m proud of you,’ he told her. ‘And I’m sure you’ll look very smart in your WAAF uniform.’

Sunday blinked back tears and added her praise to his. ‘I’m proud of you too, darling. But … I shall miss you dreadfully and worry about you every minute you’re away.’

‘I shall be fine,’ Livvy said breezily, although were she to admit it she was a little nervous. Still, it was done now and there could be no going back.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

January 1940

‘Have you seen this?’ George asked, stabbing his finger at a page in the newspaper he was reading as he and Cissie sat in their cottage one evening in January. ‘It says the River Thames has frozen over for the first time since 1818.’

‘It don’t surprise me,’ Cissie replied from her seat by the fire where she was darning socks. ‘I can’t remember ever having such a bad winter. It’s enough to freeze the hairs off a brass monkey out there an’ there’s no sign of it stoppin’ yet. Still, at least the twins an’ the children are enjoyin’ the snow. It’s a job to get young Bobby off that sledge you made for him.’ Her face became solemn then as she remarked, ‘I don’t know why you even bother to read that paper anymore. It’s full o’ doom an’ gloom. Another two million young men have been called up an’ now we’ve got rationin’. We’re fairly lucky ’ere but folks as live in the towns won’t fare so well.’ She eyed the toast he’d just spread with a generous helping of butter disapprovingly. ‘An’ you’ve got your entire week’s ration on your toast. Two ounces a week is your lot. Unless you want to use marge. An’ none of yer four teaspoons of sugar in yer tea anymore neither. Twelve ounces! I use more than that when I bake one cake.’

George snorted; he had a sweet tooth and was already finding it difficult to adjust, but then he supposed they were still going to be a lot better off than most folks, plus they’d been through it all before – and not that long ago.

‘Sunday had a letter off Livvy yesterday,’ Cissie went on. ‘Poor lass says the huts they’re havin’ to sleep in are freezin’ but she’s almost finished her trainin’ now so hopefully wherever they transfer her will have a bit better accommodation.’

At that moment Livvy was sitting beneath her blanket in a hut with four other girls shivering like a jelly.