‘I had a word with the wonderful Brenda. She’s agreed to have Monty and take over next week with the help of Flo if she’s still around, and Ruby, who’s had her hours cut at the factory. Peggy said she’ll have Harvey as Cissy’s home and can walk him – and Bert Williams promised to come in to see to the ferrets.’ He grinned down at her. ‘So we’ll be fancy free.’

Rosie giggled as she snuggled against him. ‘My goodness, you have been busy. So where are we going?’

‘To Brighton. So pack your dancing shoes and your best frocks. I managed to book the honeymoon suite at the Metropole where we’ll be waited on hand and foot and thoroughly spoilt.’

‘Oh, Ron,’ she sighed against his lips. ‘That sounds like absolute heaven.’

3

Ivy was not feeling the full ticket this early Thursday morning, and neither was Rita going by the dark shadows beneath her eyes. ‘You look as ropey as I feel,’ Ivy muttered, half-heartedly dragging a brush through the tangles of her brown hair.

‘Thanks for nothing,’ grumbled Rita, blearily regarding her reflection in the dressing-table mirror and wincing as the sun shone in her eyes. ‘You don’t exactly look radiant yourself.’

‘It’s all right for you. You don’t have to go into work until this evening. Gawd knows how they expect me to make bullets when me ’ands are shaking like a leaf and me ’ead’s pounding. I’m likely to blow the place up.’

‘Perhaps they’ll put you on different duties today,’ said Rita, turning away from the sunlight streaming in. ‘Surely the bosses must realise how dangerous it would be to let you loose with explosives after almost a whole week of overdoing things.’

‘They obviously don’t,’ Ivy retorted, pulling up her dungarees and adjusting the shoulder straps. ‘But I think it’s daft getting us all back so soon. Why couldn’t they’ve waited until Monday?’

‘The war might be over here, but the troops in the Far East still need armaments, Ivy. You can’t expect Uncle Jim to face the Japs with an empty gun just because you’ve got a hangover.’

Ivy sighed and finished lacing her sturdy boots. ‘You’re right,’ she admitted, ‘but that don’t help with this ’eadache.’

‘You’ll feel better once you’ve had an aspirin and got some breakfast inside you,’ soothed Rita, digging about in the piles of clothing strewn across the floor and every other flat surface.

Ivy gave a deep sigh. ‘I’ll feel better once I’ve heard from me mum or sister. I know they don’t write often, but it’s been nearly two months since Mum’s last letter, and I would’ve thought she’d let me know where they’ve been moved to.’

Rita’s eyes widened. ‘They’ve been moved again? What for this time?’