‘It says that in due course the RAF will inform us what camp he is in and we’ll be able to write to him and send him parcels,’ Livvy said excitedly.

Suddenly John looked ten years younger and for the rest of that day they all walked about with broad smiles on their faces.

Now, even having to return to her unit didn’t seem quite so daunting to Livvy and she set off with a spring in her step, assuring them all that she would get back just as soon as she had some more leave due.

On the same day that Livvy returned to her unit, Ben stood gazing through the railings at the children in the school playground. It was now mid-November and the children were muffled up in hats, scarves, gloves and warm coats, with only their small faces showing. But he still would have recognised his two anywhere. It was funny, really. If he was honest, he had never yearned to have children, nor even given it a thought before he met Maggie; and then his tiny son had been cruelly snatched away from him. He had thought his chances of becoming a father had died with him and now here were Daisy and Thomas. It was like being offered a second chance and he was desperate to get to know them, to tell them that he was their father. It was a bitterly cold day and the biting wind whipped around his face as he stood there, his hands thrust deep into his coat pockets. The day before he had visited the doctor who had told him that he should be well enough to return to his regiment within the next couple of weeks. But Ben had no wish to return now. He wanted to spend time with Daisy and Thomas. But how he was going to do that he had no idea. Kathy had made it more than clear that she no longer had any feelings for him, and she never wanted to see him again, and now the clock was ticking.

At that moment a teacher appeared and rang a bell and the children formed straggly lines and were promptly marched back into school leaving Ben feeling bereft. He turned despondently and began the long trek back into town where he had rented a room in a rather seedy bed and breakfast in one of the back streets close to the town centre. He had been coming to the school fence for the last few days, watching his children avidly at break times like a starving man might eye a feast, but now he was getting desperate. Somehow, he must come up with a plan for them to be together – they were his own flesh and blood, after all.