‘Sarah has to make her own decisions, right or wrong. It’s what adults have to do. Rita knows she can come to me, but she’s a tough little thing and is quite capable of getting through what ails her at the moment. I can’t do much about Anne, Cissy, the boys and the grandchildren, but you have no need to worry about them, Peggy. They’re healthy and safe down in Somerset, and will come back the minute the war’s over.’

‘But Bob’s … And Charlie’s …’

‘Stop it, Peg,’ he said gently. ‘Those boys will come home, you’ll see. All this talk of enlisting and fighting alongside their father is just a result of all the propaganda they’re being fed day after day on the wireless and in the papers.’

Peggy withdrew her hands from his grip and cupped his face. ‘Dear Ron. What would I ever do without you?’ she sighed.

‘You’d probably have less work and fewer shenanigans to put up with,’ he said lightly, glad she seemed more like herself.

‘I heard about your latest set-to with Matron,’ she said with a ghost of a smile. ‘Whatever possessed you to take Queenie up there?’

‘Ach, the daft wee thing followed me and I had no choice.’ He chuckled and shook his head. ‘You should have seen Matron’s face. I thought she’d explode.’

Peggy lit a cigarette and regarded him through the smoke. ‘And what about you, Ron? Have things been resolved between you and Rosie?’

He frowned. ‘Sort of,’ he mumbled. ‘I got a letter this morning, hand-delivered and already opened.’ He quickly explained Rosie’s reason for leaving so suddenly, and went on to tell her about his suspicions that Ethel had been the one to keep the letter.

Peggy’s expression cleared and she smiled before telling him about the unpleasant scene with Olive in the washroom, which had led Dolly to Doris, and then into a full-frontal attack on Ethel outside the factory to retrieve Rosie’s letter. ‘There’s no doubt at all that she had it,’ Peggy finished.

‘Phew,’ breathed Ron. ‘That’s quite some bit of detection work.’ He grinned. ‘I wish I’d seen Dolly rough-handling Ethel.’ He cleared his throat. ‘It clearly wasn’t Ethel’s morning, because she ran into even more trouble later.’

Peggy eyed him sharply. ‘Ivy told us about her thieving, and how the supervisor saw her stuff fall out of her lunch tin and pockets. Has she been sacked?’

Ron took her hand and carefully went over the morning’s events. ‘She and Olive Grayson have been sent down to Hastings to await their trial,’ he said finally. ‘We won’t see either of them again in a hurry.’

‘And Stan? How’s he coping with the shame of it all?’