Soon he was surprised to see Petticoat Lane to the left of him, or rather what was left of it. There were no stalls or stallholders shouting their wares today. Like the rest of the city it had been bombed and as he stared at the smouldering ruins it was hard to remember it as it had been, but at least now he could get his bearings again.

‘Come on,’ he urged the dog, who was beginning to flag a little. ‘The train station is this way.’ Suddenly he had an overpowering urge to see Edith. Admittedly he had been wary of her when he had first arrived at Treetops, but her patience and kindness had won him over and now he wanted nothing more than to just fall into her arms and sob his heart out.

Soon the station appeared in the distance and Bobby allowed himself to lean against a wall for a moment to ease the stitch in his side. He bent to stroke the dog reassuringly and as he straightened, he became aware of a deafening whistling sound. Glancing up he saw a bomb hurtling down straight towards him and seconds later it crashed into the road only yards away from him. As he felt the bricks in the wall behind him begin to collapse, he just had time to throw himself down over Skippy and he thought briefly, I hope our Peggy’ll be aw’ight, and then, as the wall began to cave in on top of him, there was only darkness and he knew no more.

Chapter Thirty-Five

‘No … nooooo … Dad, don’t!’

‘Shush now, pet.’

Peggy started awake from a terrible nightmare as Edith clicked her bedroom light on and hurried towards her to gather her into her arms.

The child was wet through with sweat and was in a tangle of damp sheets. ‘It’s all right now. You were just having a nasty dream but it’s all over now.’

Edith rocked her to and fro and very slowly the child’s cries subsided into hiccupping sobs that tore at her heart. ‘That’s better. Now, what was so bad to make you dream like that?’ she asked softly. It wasn’t the first time Peggy had had nightmares, but she had been worse since Bobby had gone.

For a moment Peggy remained silent and Edith thought she would clam up as she usually did when this happened. The child seemed to be considering whether to say anything or not but then haltingly she told her, ‘It … it were me dad … He did bad things to me an’ he ’urt me.’

‘With his belt you mean?’ Edith questioned softly but Peggy shook her head.

‘No … ’e did bad things to me down ’ere.’