‘Pauline should be here soon, and I’ve said we’d eat at about seven. Goodness only knows when the men will turn up,’ Peggy said, reaching for her wrap-round apron. ‘But they’d better be sober enough to eat their dinner. It would be terrible to waste all that pigeon when it’s such a treat to have some meat other than rabbit for the pot.’

‘Ron won’t have an appetite for anything much when he hears what Bertie and I saw this afternoon,’ said Cordelia with a glint in her eyes.

Peggy regarded her with surprise. ‘I didn’t realise you’d been out with Bertie.’

‘He popped in just after you’d left and took me for a glass of sherry at the Officers’ Club.’ Cordelia sat down, folded her arms and looked at Peggy over her half-moon glasses. ‘It’s quite surprising who you can bump into at that club,’ she said with just a hint of glee.

‘Not Ron, surely?’ gasped Peggy as Fran hovered in the doorway and the other girls stopped what they were doing to listen.

‘Of course not,’ Cordelia replied dismissively. ‘He might have been an officer during the previous war, but they wouldn’t let him past the bottom step looking the way he does now.’ She made sure she had everyone’s attention. ‘It was Rosie.’

‘Rosie?’ breathed Peggy. ‘What on earth was she doing in there?’

Cordelia pursed her lips and tried to look disapproving. ‘She was having lunch with that handsome one-armed major.’

‘Good for her,’ said Fran from the doorway.

‘Yes, it’s time Rosie had some fun,’ said Sarah. ‘Ron never takes her anywhere, and Major Radwell’s a real gentleman.’

‘It might make Ron treat her better if he thinks he’s got a rival,’ muttered Rita.

‘I’m sure it was all perfectly innocent,’ said Peggy firmly. ‘Rosie’s not tied to Ron, and she can have lunch with whomever she pleases.’

‘Hmm.’ Cordelia pursed her lips. ‘They looked very cosy, the pair of them, and Bertie and I agreed that the amount of flirting going on was enough to set tongues wagging for a month of Sundays.’

‘Oh, lawks,’ sighed Peggy. ‘I do hope you’re wrong, Cordelia.’

‘I might be old, but I still have my wits about me,’ she replied waspishly, ‘and I know when there are shenanigans afoot, believe me.’

Peggy had met the Major during one of her rare evenings at the Anchor, and could perfectly understand why Rosie might have had her head turned. He was the very opposite of Ron, with his lovely neat appearance and gentlemanly manners. ‘Rosie has always enjoyed a bit of flirting,’ she said, ‘and I don’t think any of us should take this too seriously.’ She looked at Cordelia. ‘What was her reaction when she saw you and Bertie Double-Barrelled?’