The policeman, a different one to the couple who had been there that morning, intervened. ‘I understand you are all acquainted with Mr Alfred Delaney,’ he said slowly. ‘I can therefore inform you that my colleagues are at this moment in the process of apprehending him. He won’t be back to cause your family any more harm, I can reassure you of that, Mrs – Feeny, is it?’

Dolly nodded, as Tommy burst out, ‘He was in the pub, Auntie Dolly. We could hear him as we got Georgie away. He was shouting and screaming about something.’

‘Then we tried to find a bus but we went past an ARP warden’s station and got help from there,’ Nancy explained. ‘Don’t worry, Mam, we’re fine, and Georgie doesn’t seem to have been hurt. We’re trying to say as little as possible in front of him, but really he thinks it’s all a big adventure now.’

‘You can tell me all the details later, then,’ Dolly said. ‘I’m still going to ask Rita to take a look at him. She should be back from the hospital soon. And that’s Pop now, if I’m not much mistaken.’ She hurried to greet him, keen to update him on all he had missed since leaving for work much earlier in the day.

Nancy looked at Tommy. She realised she’d always discounted him before as a young tearaway who was likely to cause trouble wherever he went. Now she saw he had grown up and was on his way to being a man – and one who could take responsibility and keep calm under pressure. He also seemed to know a few useful tricks.

‘I meant to ask you before,’ she said in a low voice so that Dolly and Pop wouldn’t catch what she was saying. ‘How did you know what to do with that hair grip? I mean, I was glad you did know, or we’d never have got Georgie away so soon or so quietly – but you didn’t learn that at school, did you? Don’t tell me they teach you that at the GPO in case nobody answers when you knock.’

Tommy blushed in the parlour’s gaslight. ‘Promise you won’t say,’ he replied. ‘Uncle Seth taught me. Auntie Joan mustn’t find out. He accidentally locked himself out one day when she was at market and we couldn’t get in. He showed me what to do and let me have a go. We had to send Michael and Megan to play with the chickens so they wouldn’t know.’

Nancy raised her eyebrows. ‘And here was me thinking he just taught you how to fix a fence or collect eggs. Well, I’ll thank him one day – don’t worry, when nobody else can overhear.’