They found the work far more tiring than they had thought they would. Gethin had made it sound as though milking was the hardest part of the day, whereas in fact, they spent the whole day tending to the animals, feeding the pigs and chickens, mucking out the pens, hunting for eggs, herding the cattle from the field to the shed and back again, and checking the sheep to make sure that they were in good health. For the first few days both girls claimed they ached in places they never knew they had.

Their time on the farm flew by, and before they knew it, it was the morning before Gethin was due to leave the farm and Roz, Mabel and Gethin were herding the cattle into the milking shed.

‘You can’t beat a sunrise on a clear day,’ Gethin said as he closed the gate behind them.

Mabel followed his gaze to the horizon, where the sun’s rays were feeling their way across the land. ‘Had someone told me this time last year that I’d be getting up before dawn to do the milking, I’d have thought them potty,’ she said conversationally, ‘especially if they’d told me that sunrise would be my favourite time of day, but not any more! I love being awake when most of the world is still asleep.’ She glanced around her. ‘No cars, no screaming kids, and no people arguing in the street ’cos they’ve had a skinful, just cows chewing the cud …’

Roz, who was not a fan of the farm’s cockerel, butted in. ‘What about Gulliver? You can’t say he’s a joy to hear at five o’clock in the morning!’

‘He’s my alarm!’ said Mabel defensively. ‘I’d far rather hear him sounding off than that Moaning Minnie.’

Roz grimaced. When they had been living in Liverpool, the air raid siren, nicknamed Moaning Minnie, had been seen as an inconvenience because it had always been a false alarm. But since leaving, the girls had heard from Mabel’s parents, as well as Bill and Alan, that the bombing had started in Liverpool. Not as bad as down south, but it had certainly put things into perspective.

‘I wonder if Callum is still looting,’ Roz mused aloud.

Gethin’s eyes widened as he leashed some of the cows, ready for milking. ‘Looting?’

Roz explained Callum’s air raid shenanigans.

‘That’s terrible,’ said Callum. ‘What did the police do?’

‘Not a lot they could do,’ said Mabel, ‘not unless they caught him red-handed, and they’ve got more sense than to be checking houses for would-be criminals in the middle of an air raid, false or otherwise.’

‘People like that make my blood boil,’ said Gethin, ‘but I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around. Just you wait, he’ll get his comeuppance one of these days.’