They’d settled at one of the wrought-iron tables to eat their lunches, the brittle wind carrying the noise of traffic from surrounding streets. Alice felt oddly unnatural, as if they were actors on a stage about to begin their scene, and not colleagues and friends who knew each other well and did this all the time.

“That’s understandable,” Ursula said, “but what about you? I can see how upset you are about leaving. It just doesn’t seem very fair.” Alice felt Ursula eyeing her surreptitiously, as if noticing that something had changed—perhaps even the shape of her belly—and she tried to remain composed, knowing that the more guarded she was, the more suspicious Ursula would become.

“Why isn’t it fair?” Alice asked.

“You having to give up work, for one thing.” Ursula pushed away her barely touched lunch and pulled out a packet of Sobranie cigarettes, offering one to Alice, who shook her head. “So, you’re giving up cigarettes too?” Ursula said flippantly, then placed one between pursed lips.

“Well, of course I’d obviously rather not give up my job, but Mum won’t stop working, so I have to.”

“Maybe you should let me talk to her,” Ursula said as she forcefully exhaled. “You’re going to make such a great editor, Alice. And after all my hard work training you . . . I really don’t know how you can bear to throw it all away!”

Alice didn’t know how she was going to either. She didn’t have a degree like Ursula, Emily and Tommy but had learned through reading widely and taking a course at the London College of Printing. After a lot of hard work and determination, she had been hired as an administrator by George, then Ursula had trained and supported her in becoming an assistant editor—much to the horror of Emily, who couldn’t understand how on earth this could happen. Ursula had shown Alice how to assess manuscripts, copyedit, proofread, brief illustrators and typographers, and look after the department’s ever-shrinking advertising budget; all things Ursula had told her that she’d need to know when her time came to be an editor. Only now that could never happen.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll be back before we know it,” Alice said somberly.

“It is a lot to ask, though, for you to put your job on hold rather than hers. After all, you’re in a profession now, and she’s not,” Ursula replied emphatically.

“I know, but she doesn’t see it that way. She thinks I’ve only been here for two years, and she’s been at the munitions factory for much longer. She won’t give it up.”