Peggy stood by the window and chuckled as she looked down into the street. Ron and the rest of the men were busily tying tin cans to the back bumper of Mike’s hired car, fixing bangers under the front wheels, ribbons to the bonnet, and attaching a large sign to the boot, which she guessed proclaimed the occupants as newly-weds.

Watching them staggering about and giggling like schoolboys, Peggy was reminded of Jim doing much the same thing at Anne’s wedding. How he would have loved to have been a part of all this instead of being stuck in some horrid Burmese jungle, she thought wistfully. She was reminded then that there were two letters from him still waiting to be read at home – an added treat to be savoured after a lovely day.

She finished her cup of tea and hurried downstairs to join in the fun of seeing the couple off. They wouldn’t be going far – just back to the bungalow, where they would probably stay cocooned until Saturday morning. Their proper honeymoon would begin when they set sail for Canada.

Everyone in Camden Road stopped what they were doing to cheer as the couple emerged from the Anchor in a shower of more confetti and a good deal of back-slapping and hugs. Ruby was waving and blowing kisses as Mike started the car, and when it rolled forward the firecrackers beneath the front wheels went off with a volley of sharp bangs, and the cans set up a terrible racket as they were dragged along the road.

Everyone cheered and carried on waving as the car turned out of Camden Road onto the High Street, and the noise of those cans could still be heard in the distance as the car carried on right up the hill to the bungalow in Mafeking Terrace.

Since it was almost opening time, Peggy hitched a sleepy Daisy onto her hip and went back inside to lay her on the padded settle beneath the back window while she helped Rosie clear the tables. The party was already breaking up, for April had taken Paula home to bed; Bertie was on his way to the golf club in search of a game of bridge; Rita had poured Peter into a taxi before reporting for duty with Andy at the fire station, and Danuta had left some time ago for her district-nursing shift.