She glanced down to the station platform and caught sight of Ethel gossiping with the two WVS ladies who were running the tea stall. Peggy was about to hurry on when Ethel looked up just at that moment, called out and beckoned her down. Not wanting to appear rude, but disinclined to get caught up in Ethel’s thirst for scandal, she checked she could spare a few minutes for a quick chat, and reluctantly made her way through the remains of the booking hall and onto the platform.

Ethel’s husband, Stan, was the stationmaster, and had been since his father retired from the post at the end of the last war, and although Ethel worked at the munitions factory with her daughter Ruby, she also helped out at the station when time allowed. Stan had had a heart attack during their wedding reception the previous year, and Ethel’s stubborn determination to get him well again had seen him lose most of his excess weight – which made him look much healthier, and had earned Peggy’s grudging respect.

Peggy had never really taken to Ethel, for she was rough and opinionated and spoke her mind before thinking, which often caused offence. She’d not been very nice about April, Peggy’s one-time evacuee, until she’d got to know her properly. Ethel had accepted that the girl was Stan’s niece and had mellowed somewhat once April’s illegitimate baby had come along. Peggy was delighted that April had found a warm and loving home with Ethel and Stan. To give Ethel her due, she’d proved to be a stalwart supporter of the girl and a terrific surrogate grandmother to little Paula.

Yet there were things about Ethel that niggled Peggy, and although Stan was a lifelong family friend, Peggy still couldn’t think of her as the sort of woman she could confide in and fully trust, for Ethel took umbrage at the slightest thing, was light-fingered, and a salacious gossip with a spiteful tongue.

Peggy greeted the WVS women, who she knew from her time working at the Town Hall – relieved that her sister Doris was not amongst them – and then turned to Ethel, who was wearing a knotted headscarf, dungarees and an oversize railway uniform jacket. ‘Stan deserted you, has he?’ she asked.

Ethel took the ever-present roll-up out of her mouth and grimaced. ‘He went up to’ is allotment two hours ago and I ain’t seen hide nor hair of him since.’ She grinned. ‘Reckon ’im and the others are finishing off all that booze they brought back from the Crown.’

Peggy sighed. ‘So, you’ve heard what happened, then?’