‘I’ll just walk back up to Treetops and make sure everywhere is tidy for Mr Willerby, while the girls put the rest of the things away,’ Sunday told Cissie.

Cissie said nothing. The house was as neat as a new pin as Sunday was well aware but Cissie rightly guessed that she probably just wanted to say her goodbyes to the place. All her happy memories had been made there and Cissie could only imagine how hard it was going to be for her seeing someone else living in what she would always consider her home.

‘I’ll just go an’ check on George while you go in,’ she said tactfully at the top of the drive. ‘I’ll be back shortly, pet.’

Sunday nodded and climbing the steps she walked into the hall. It felt strangely empty, but she was remembering a time when it had rung with the sound of children’s laughter. She only had to close her eyes and she could picture the many children she had loved and cared for racing up and down the corridor when it had been too cold for them to go out to play. She made her way upstairs and stood in the doorway of the room she had shared with Tom. They had been little more than children themselves when they had come here as newlyweds and here, they had grown old together. She crossed to the window and again she could picture them dancing on the lawn in the moonlight on their wedding day. They had been so young and so in love, with their whole lives stretching out ahead of them. Where had the time gone?

Systematically she worked her way through each room seeing in her mind’s eye each of the many children that she and Tom had cared for over the years, and by the time she went down the stairs again her cheeks were wet.

Cissie was waiting quietly in the hall for her and, without a word, she wrapped her arms around her and let her cry on her shoulder.

‘That’s it, pet, you let it all out,’ she muttered soothingly, and it was some minutes before she realised that she too was crying. It was the end of an era.

Chapter Fourteen

The smell of a cottage pie and vegetables cooking wafted around the lodge later that day as Sunday went to the bottom of the stairs and called the girls for their meal. They had spent most of the afternoon putting their clothes away and settling into their rooms, but Sunday was greeted with silence from Livvy’s room.

‘I wonder if she’s dozed off,’ Sunday said to Kathy as she came down the stairs.

‘I’ll go and give her door a knock.’

Kathy turned and climbed the stairs again but when she tapped on Livvy’s door the girl shouted, ‘Go away! I’m not hungry!’