‘That went well,’ said Frank dryly. ‘I expect most of Cliffehaven will hear about it before nightfall as Olive Grayson was watching your every move.’ He eyed his father quizzically. ‘There were certainly some sparks flying between you and Gloria. You haven’t been playing away there, have you, Da?’

‘As tempting as it is, I wouldn’t dare,’ Ron replied. ‘Rosie would deal with me as thoroughly as the vet did Harvey.’ He eyed the whiskey in the mug, saw an ant about to drown itself and flicked it out with a grubby finger. ‘God help me, boys. To be sure she’ll hear about this and, like that ant, me life will be in peril.’

‘You always did live on a knife-edge, Grandad,’ said Brendon with a wry smile. ‘How Rosie puts up with you, I really don’t know.’

‘It’s because she loves me,’ Ron replied with drunken bravado. ‘She’s a forgiving woman, so she is, and this’ll all blow over, you’ll see.’

He chuckled and raised his mug in a toast. ‘Here’s to women. Can’t live with ’em, but can’t live without ’em. God bless them all.’

2

The British Red Cross distribution centre had been set up on the vast factory estate which sprawled across the northernmost reaches of Cliffehaven where cattle had once grazed. Situated behind high barbed-wire fencing, it was overshadowed by several barrage balloons which glinted like silver whales above the mass of corrugated iron roofs.

Peggy could have left Daisy with Sarah and Cordelia, but as she spent so little time with her now she was working, she’d decided to take her along this afternoon so they could have half an hour’s play in the park before she started her two-hour stint as a volunteer for the Red Cross. She steered the pushchair up the steep hill, then showed her identity card to the guard on duty at the gate and headed for the new building at the far end.