‘I don’t like it here,’ Thomas stated emphatically the next morning when he woke in the poky little room that was the only place Ben had managed to find for them to stay the night before. There were two single beds in it. Ben had slept in one and Thomas and Daisy had slept end to end in the other. ‘The sheets smell funny,’ he went on with a wobble in his voice. ‘And I want to go home to my mummy!’ He promptly burst into tears.

‘Shush, we will just so soon as we’ve finished havin’ our adventure,’ Daisy soothed as she placed her arm about his shoulder, though in truth she hadn’t been having the best of times up to now either. Still, she thought optimistically, today is bound to get better. There were so many wonderful things to see and places to visit in London that their teacher had shown them in books; perhaps they would get to see some of them in real life today? For now, though, her main concern was hunger; her tummy was rumbling ominously, and she was desperate to use the toilet as well. Ben had woken her up a couple of times during the night when he had called out in his sleep but thankfully Thomas had slept through it, which was just as well, Daisy thought, cos her brother wasn’t as brave as she was.

Ben’s eyes suddenly snapped open and he sat bolt upright in bed, his eyes staring, causing the children to huddle together but then catching sight of the two frightened little faces he forced himself to relax.

‘Good morning, you two. Sleep well, did you?’ There was no answer, so he went on. ‘How’s about we have a bit of a wash and go down an’ see what the landlady has for our breakfast, eh?’

It was only when they had washed as best they could with the cold water in the jug that Ben realised he had no clothes or even a hairbrush for them and that could prove to be a problem with no clothing coupons.

‘We’ll just finger-comb your hair for now,’ he told Daisy, as he awkwardly tried to tie the springy curls into a ribbon at the nape of her neck.

‘We haven’t got our toothbrushes neither,’ Daisy told him accusingly. ‘And Mummy says we should clean our teeth every morning and every night before we go to bed.’

‘And quite right Mummy is,’ Ben said cheerfully. ‘But don’t worry. We’ll go and buy you both new ones right after breakfast.’

As they descended the stairs of the small house the landlady – a small, grubby-faced woman with a hooked nose and untidy grey hair who put Daisy in mind of the witch in one of her story books – appeared from a door in the hallway.