‘That’s right, love, you do that.’ Dolly approved of the Parkers, and felt she could rest easy that Nancy couldn’t get up to anything now. She picked up her knitting again, Pop coming though the back door just as Nancy went out.

Pop shrugged off the heavy donkey jacket that he wore for his salvage work, and turned to wash his hands at the kitchen sink. ‘Did I miss anything?’ he asked, coming through the narrow doorframe between the back kitchen and the kitchen proper. He bent to kiss Dolly on the cheek. ‘What did Nancy want? The usual?’

Dolly laughed up at him. ‘Of course. She can’t have her own way this time, though.’ She recounted their conversation.

Pop raised his eyebrows. ‘She’ll have to get used to the new way of doing things,’ he declared, running his hand through his shock of white hair. ‘We’ve helped her a lot and we’ll do so again, but she has to realise little Ellen needs us too. I don’t want our Rita took bad because she’s tried to do much too soon. You know what she’s like.’

‘You’re right, she’ll be angling to get back to work any day now,’ said Dolly, untangling a length of wool that had tied itself in a knot. ‘She’s not to rush it. We’ll have to keep an eye on her, see that she takes her time.’

‘She never thinks of herself, that one,’ Pop said. ‘What’s that you’re making there, Dolly? That looks familiar.’

‘So it should.’ Dolly held her work at arm’s length and inspected it critically. ‘It’s the wool from the cardigan Violet’s been wearing these past three years, which was more hole than cardie by the time I came to use it. I don’t know, it’s been washed so often it’s gone all scratchy and uneven. I reckoned I could make it into a bolero for her so she could still get the warmth, but we’ll have to see.’

‘If anyone can do it, you can,’ said Pop proudly. He never ceased to be amazed at his wife’s skill, even though they had been married thirty-odd years. She could sew, knit and cook, she was the street’s auxiliary fire-watcher, she ran make-do-and-mend classes as well as working for the WVS. She had raised five children, helped with three grandchildren so far and was hoping for more, though she never said anything in case Violet got upset. There was no doubt where most of their children got their work ethic from. He returned to the subject of the one child who hadn’t.

‘Our Nancy all right, was she?’