‘We’d better go in,’ she chuckled, catching sight of the neighbour across the road who was avidly watching them around her net curtains. ‘Old Ma Henley’s nose is glued to her window and if her eyes get much wider, they’ll pop out altogether.’

Mike turned, smiling to smartly salute the nosy woman who looked askance at his eyepatch and hastily withdrew from her window. He was still smiling as he took Ruby’s hand. ‘If she only knew what my plans are for you, she’d probably faint,’ he said with a naughty twinkle in his good eye.

Ruby went a deep scarlet, fetched the bucket and led him into the house. Once the door was closed behind them, Mike dropped his kitbag, relieved Ruby of the bucket, swept her up into his arms and, between kisses, asked where the bedroom was.

Ruby pointed, too busy returning his kisses to talk, and he carried her along the hall and closed the bedroom door behind them.

It was a long while later that Ruby sleepily shifted in Mike’s arms and peered at the bedside clock. With an exclamation of horror, she leapt from the bed. ‘I’ve got ten minutes to get to the Anchor,’ she gasped, stumbling over their discarded clothes strewn across the floor to get to the bathroom for a wash, and to clean her teeth.

‘Do you have to go tonight?’ he asked, sitting up in bed as she dashed back into the room, minutes later, still as naked as the day she was born. ‘I thought we’d spend it together.’

‘Ron and Rosie are away on honeymoon and Saturday nights are always busy. I can’t leave Brenda to cope on her own.’ She found fresh underwear and the skirt and blouse Rosie had bought for her to wear behind the bar. She finished fastening the fiddly buttons on the blouse and slipped her bare feet into her best shoes. ‘Besides, I wasn’t expecting you back until next week,’ she reminded him.

‘They let me go earlier than planned,’ he replied, the sheet slipping down to expose his torso and the scars of the wounds he’d suffered along with a blinded eye during the disastrous Dieppe Raid back in 1942. ‘Telephone Brenda and tell her you’ll be a bit late,’ he suggested. ‘There are important things I need to discuss with you tonight, Ruby.’

‘I don’t have a telephone,’ she replied, reaching for her hairbrush. ‘Why don’t you come with me, and we can talk during my break?’

He got out of bed, adjusted his eyepatch, and swiftly began to dress. ‘I guess I should have sent a telegram warning you I was on my way, but I wanted to surprise you,’ he said, his voice muffled by the shirt he was pulling over his head. ‘So it’s my fault we have to spend my first night back in a crowded pub.’