There is not much left to say. By the time you get this letter I will probably be dead. I will have been classed as AWOL by my regiment by now, I have no family left, and so there is nothing for me to live for anymore. I am not asking for your sympathy. You were the best of mothers to me and didn’t deserve any of the terrible things I did to you. All I ask, if you can possibly manage it, is that you will think fondly of me from time to time.

Affectionately, Your stepson,

Ben xxxxx

Tears slid down Sunday’s cheeks as she withdrew the final letter from the large envelope. Once again it was from the solicitor informing her that a body had been fished from the docks matching Ben’s description. Ben’s name was also engraved on the dog tag he had been wearing about his neck so there was little doubt that it was him and the solicitor was asking what she wished to do with his body. Even if they had been estranged for some time she was after all Ben’s next of kin.

‘Would you ask George to ring the solicitor and ask him to arrange to have Ben’s body brought home?’ she asked Cissie. ‘He will be buried in the churchyard next to his father. It’s what Tom would have wanted.’

‘What …? After all he’s done?’ Cissie said incredulously.

‘Yes,’ Sunday said. ‘Ben hadn’t been mentally stable since he came home from the war and I think losing Maggie and the baby and then his father was just too much for him to handle. We have to try to put all the bad things he did behind us now, otherwise we’ll never know any peace either.’

Cissie shook her head. ‘Well, if you’re sure, but goodness knows what Kathy will have to say about this! I have a feeling she ain’t goin’ to be so ready to forgive him as you are. Poor lass will hardly let them kids out of her sight since she got them back.’

‘You leave Kathy to me.’ She gave Cissie a watery smile as Cissie went off to find George.

Cissie was proved right and when Kathy got home from the hospital that afternoon, she was incensed to hear the news. She now always finished work in time to collect the children from school herself and seemed terrified of letting them out of her sight. The large Christmas tree John had ordered had been delivered that day and Kathy had promised the children that they could dress it that evening but now she was so angry she wasn’t sure she’d be able to concentrate.