‘I’m sorry about her lack of manners, Jack,’ Peggy flustered. ‘Grown up she might be, but she still has a lot to learn.’

Jack nodded thoughtfully, but wasn’t really too surprised at Cissy’s rudeness. To his mind, she’d always been far too fond of herself. ‘I’ll take my stuff upstairs and have a bit of a wash and brush-up, if that’s all right?’ he said. ‘Lunch smells good, Peggy. I can’t remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal.’

Harvey saw his cue and quickly scooted from beneath the table to follow Jack upstairs in the hope he had something tasty in that large bag.

Looking more closely at Rita, Peggy realised she’d been crying, and wondered if she’d told her father about Peter and they’d had a bit of a falling out. Jack certainly didn’t look as jolly as she remembered, but perhaps that was because his homecoming was all a bit of a shock after being away so long. She hesitated over whether she should tell Rita about Ivy’s news, but realised it was bound to come up in the conversation over lunch, so drew the girl to one side and explained what had happened this morning.

Rita stared at her in shock. ‘I must go to her,’ she breathed, slipping her jacket back on. ‘She’ll be in a terrible state.’

‘She’s got Andy and Gloria looking after her, and will be fine,’ Peggy said firmly. ‘You can help her once she comes home again – which will probably be tomorrow. You need to concentrate on your dad now. I assume you’ve told him about Peter’s proposal?’

Rita nodded. ‘I felt awful letting him down, but he was very good about it. He’s looking forward to meeting Pete tomorrow, and I just know they’ll get on.’

Peggy hoped that was the case, but she knew Jack. He was a loving, fiercely protective father who’d raised his daughter single-handedly since she was five, and would regard any suitor with deep suspicion – especially one who was planning to steal his daughter away to the other side of the world.

Peggy gave Rita a kiss and prompted her to help Jane finish laying the table. She would have liked to be a fly on the wall when the two men met – it would be most interesting to see how things unfolded.

12

Cissy knew she was being obnoxious, but it seemed that everyone and everything was getting on her nerves lately, and she simply couldn’t get out of the habit of running roughshod over others’ feelings. However, as she scrabbled in her handbag for her address book to write down the telephone number Clarissa had just given her, she did feel bad about virtually ignoring Jack Smith who’d become like a favourite uncle during her formative years when she and Rita were close.