He stared back at her and for a moment the words he was about to say froze on his tongue. But then, realising that he must tell her the dreadful news he licked his lips and said quietly, ‘I’m afraid it was, Edith. The police managed to speak to one of the children’s neighbours, a Mrs Cotton, who was most helpful by all accounts, and she informed them that Bobby had been there. She felt obliged to tell him what had happened to his parents and when she did, he was so distraught that he ran off with his little dog, Skippy.’

‘So where is he now then?’

John looked away from the hope in her eyes. ‘Soon after he left, London suffered yet more bombing and last night rescuers retrieved the body of a boy matching Bobby’s description with a small dog beside him near Euston Station. They have the body in a hospital morgue, and they have asked if I will go and identify it.’

‘But it might not have been him,’ Edith gasped, clutching at straws as Sunday placed a comforting arm about her.

John sighed. ‘It appears he was wearing the name tag you always insisted the children should wear about his neck and the name on it was Bobby Walker … I’m so sorry, Edith, but it sounds like it was Bobby they found.’

‘No!’ Great, fat tears welled in Edith’s eyes and she sagged against Sunday as her legs turned to jelly. John helped her into the kitchen, while Sunday ran to fetch the smelling salts, which they wafted beneath the distraught woman’s nose. Slowly she began to get a grip of herself, although the tears continued to fall.

‘I think I knew deep down that he wasn’t going to come home,’ she said brokenly. ‘I just had this horrible feeling in here.’ She thumped her chest close to her heart. ‘But what will happen now if it is Bobby?’

‘I shall go and bring him home and he’ll have a decent burial,’ John promised with a catch in his voice.

As something else occurred to Edith she broke out in a cold sweat. ‘And what about Peggy? If their parents are dead, she’s an orphan now. What will become of her? Will they push her into some horrible orphanage?’

‘Let’s cross each bridge as we come to it,’ John urged, and they all fell silent with grief as they thought of the mischievous little boy who had come to mean so much to them.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Two days later John left for London. Edith had wanted to go with him but knowing how distressing what he had to do would be he had persuaded her to stay at home to look after Peggy, who was broken-hearted at the death of the big brother she had idolised.