Dolly nodded and switched the engine back on. ‘If you don’t get any joy from her, I’ll have a word with Stan. I’ve never met this new wife of his, but by the sound of it, she’s trouble. Perhaps he can persuade her to tell the truth and shed some light on what’s really going on here – because I don’t believe Rosie has left Ron in the lurch for another man.’

Peggy had to smile at Dolly’s fierce defence. It was clear her friend had a huge affection for Ron and Rosie, and was determined to get to the bottom of things. ‘I’m so glad Ron’s got you on his side,’ she said fondly. ‘Was there ever a time when you might have been tempted to …?’

Dolly laughed. ‘He might have the same twinkling eyes and the soft Irish brogue that drew you to your scallywag Jim, but there was never anything like that between us. I’ve loved him like a big brother since I was a girl, admired his skills, his mind and his courage – but he would never have fitted into my world, nor I into his.’

Peggy thought she heard a note of wistfulness in her voice, but made no comment on it as Dolly drove up the hill towards Beach View.

After kissing and hugging Peggy goodbye, Dolly drove back to the seafront and headed towards Havelock Road. She stopped by the little park which had now been turned into an allotment and switched off the engine before lighting another cigarette and letting her thoughts wander.

Havelock Road was considered to be one of the smarter areas of Cliffehaven, and Doris had moved into the large detached house with Ted on their wedding day over thirty years before. It still looked quite grand, she noted, but the signs of war were here too, in the massive guns positioned on the hill above the end of the cul-de-sac, the two empty plots filled with the rubble of what had once been fine houses, and the overgrown gardens and cracked pavements.

Dolly had met Doris and Ted on several occasions, and had never quite come to terms with the fact that Doris and Peggy were sisters, for they were chalk and cheese, and clearly rubbed each other up the wrong way.

Ted Williams had always struck her as a diffident man, cowed by his bossy wife who seemed to think his skills on the stock market gave her the right to demand whatever she needed in her quest to climb the social ladder – so it had come as a tremendous surprise to hear that he’d been having an affair for several years, and somehow found the courage to leave Doris and demand a divorce.