‘I might say the same, Miss Kerrigan – Nancy, wasn’t it?’ He took a chair and sat down, and so she sank back on to the old wooden one she’d collapsed on beforehand.

‘That’s right. Fancy you remembering,’ she laughed, conscious of how different he appeared in the daylight. Although she’d tried to take a good look at him as he walked her to the bus stop after the recent ill-fated dance, she hadn’t really been able to get a proper impression of him. Now the broad light of day confirmed he was every bit as good-looking as she recalled, and his face was even more friendly. ‘What would you like – we’ve still got some soup, or there are Spam sandwiches, and there’s always tea.’

‘Of course. This is England. There’s always tea,’ he echoed, but not in a teasing way, and he smiled to show he meant nothing by it. ‘There’s no rush, Miss Kerrigan. Look, here comes your friend with something for you.’

Mrs Moyes placed a deep bowl of soup in front of Nancy, along with what these days passed for a bread roll. Nancy thanked her gratefully, even though she knew the roll would taste like sawdust. You just couldn’t get proper flour any more, just the low-grade type that everyone had to put up with but which made the bread tasteless and grey. She didn’t care. She was used to it – they all were – and it would fill her up until she could get back to her mother-in-law’s house. ‘It’s my break,’ she explained, wondering if she should postpone it; whether Gary Trenton would think the worse of her for not being on her feet, serving behind the counter.

‘You don’t have to apologise to me,’ he said at once. ‘I tell my men, make sure you take your breaks while you can. You’re not much use to me if you’re too darn tired to put one foot in front of the other. Reckon it can get pretty busy in here, with all my fellow countrymen arriving.’

Nancy swallowed a mouthful of the soup. It was mixed vegetable, as it often was, and it didn’t always do to ask which vegetables were in it, but she was past bothering about that. Then she nodded. ‘It can. It sure can.’ She attempted an American accent.

‘Not bad.’ Trenton grinned in appreciation.

‘More and more of them every day,’ Nancy went on, then left the sentence hanging. She’d noticed the increase in numbers, they all had, and the rumours were spreading about something big in the offing. She wondered if her new friend could be persuaded to talk, but quickly realised he hadn’t got to staff sergeant by gossiping.

‘If you say so,’ he replied amiably. ‘Pretty crowded city, ain’t it? Pity about the hollowed-out church up the road.’