Mabel was about to speak when someone knocked on the door. Grinning, she jumped off Gethin’s lap and headed over to the small window at the side of the parlour door, lifting the curtain slightly so that she could see without being seen. The smile instantly vanished from her lips. ‘It’s a woman! I’ve never seen her before.’

The woman knocked again.

‘Are you going to open the door, or do you want me to?’ said Gethin, as Mabel continued to peer through the gap in the curtains. ‘It’s hardly in keeping with the Christmas spirit to leave someone on the doorstep.’

Roz got to her feet. ‘We’re never going to know who she is if we don’t answer the door. Honestly, Mabel, there are easier ways to find out who’s calling …’ As she spoke she opened the door. The woman, who looked as though she was about to walk away, turned to face her.

Much to Gethin and Mabel’s alarm, Roz staggered back from the door, her hand clasped to her mouth.

‘What’s wrong?’ said Mabel. ‘Is it summat to do with Felix? Is it …’ She got no further, for Roz, to Mabel’s astonishment, had rushed forward, taking the stranger in a tight embrace.

Tears flowing down her cheeks, they heard her say just one word: ‘Mama!’ before collapsing.

When Roz came to, she was surprised to find herself lying fully clothed on her bed, with Mabel looking down at her, with concern.

Sitting up on one elbow, she spoke to her friend. ‘What happened? Last I remember I was in the kitchen …’ She frowned as she tried to make sense of it all. She had been in the kitchen when someone had come to the door; no one seemed keen to answer it, so Roz had … She looked at Mabel. ‘I had a dream, that my mother …’ She fell silent as her mother appeared over Mabel’s shoulder.

‘Not a dream …’ said Inge.

Roz gaped at her mother, then at Mabel, who nodded, her lips trembling as she smiled. ‘And that’s not all …’

Roz craned her neck to see who else was there, keeping her fingers crossed that it would be her father.

‘Felix!’

Smiling, Felix too entered the room.

Still staring expectantly at the bedroom door she spoke softly. ‘Where’s Dad?’

Inge sank down beside the bed and cupped Roz’s hands in hers. ‘We got separated when we were leaving France, the Resistance thought it would be best …’

‘France?’

She nodded. ‘That’s where we’ve been all this time. You see, the man your father had swerved to avoid was a German soldier. As you can imagine, the accusation would have been that we had tried to hit him on purpose, so we had to think quickly. You had been thrown clear of the car, so everyone thought we were on our own and it was better that way. I couldn’t just leave you though so I asked a woman nearby to take you into the station. That’s when we made our escape. We knew it wasn’t safe to stay where we were so we made our way to France, where we worked on various farms for our keep.