He stomped off into the garden as the others broke into laughter. He’d show them he was a reformed character, and then they’d be laughing on the other side of their faces, so they would.

Ron followed Harvey down the path and through the gate, and as he began the long climb to the top of the hill he felt his spirits soar as the skylarks trilled high above him. It was a beautiful day, his old pal Stan would eventually get over Ethel with help from all who really loved him, and Rosie would soon be home where she belonged.

He took a deep lungful of the cool, clean air and watched the sun spark diamonds on the water. Anything was possible on a day like this, and although Rosie might be having second thoughts, he knew in his heart that they were meant to be together, so all was right with his world.

Peggy’s world was still a bit rocky, for her worries were legion and mostly unresolved. And yet she had to admit that her crying session last night with Ron and her heart-to-heart with Dolly had made her feel a little better. She had been trying to ignore how much the anxiety of living in wartime had affected her recently, and it felt such a relief to let it out. As the sun was promising a lovely day, she decided to leave the house early and take Daisy to the park for an hour before she had to be at work.

The large recreation ground lay to the west of the town, and looked very different to how it had once been. The bowling greens had been turned into communal vegetable plots; the cricket pavilion was now the meeting place and storage facility for the Civil Defence and Home Guard, and where there had once been carefully maintained football and cricket pitches there were more vegetables, with only a solitary bit of rough ground set aside for rugby and football.

Cliffehaven’s main public shelter lay beneath it all – a dark, rather frightening place that stank of lavatory buckets and too many people confined into a single space, which everyone avoided like the plague unless it was absolutely necessary.

Peggy was about to turn off the High Street and head for the children’s playground when she heard her name being called. She stopped and turned to see Pauline coming towards her with a determined expression that didn’t bode well.

Not wanting Daisy to witness any unpleasantness, she let go of her little hand. ‘You run on ahead, darling,’ she said. ‘I’ll be with you in a minute.’

As the toddler eagerly trotted off towards the other small children playing in the sand pit and on the swings, Peggy turned to face a clearly furious Pauline. ‘Good morning, Pauline,’ she said pleasantly. ‘It’s a bit early for you to be out, isn’t it?’