Anthony took his place behind the steering wheel and started the engine. ‘I’ve met a lot of chaps like that,’ he murmured. ‘The poor devils are finding it awfully hard to return to normal, everyday life.’

‘Michael’s actually returning to his regiment today,’ said Doris as they left Ladysmith Close and motored down the hill. ‘I think he’ll be relieved to be back in familiar surroundings after being faced with me and his father’s new life.’

‘It can’t have been easy for him to absorb all the changes,’ said Anthony, concentrating on driving over the hump-backed bridge and heading up the hill to the Club.

‘No,’ she replied thoughtfully. ‘I don’t think it was.’

Anthony parked the car outside the Club entrance and hurried round to help his mother out. He offered her his arm. ‘I get the feeling you found it rather trying too, but let’s put on a united front and enjoy our lunch. I’m starving after that long drive from Cambridge.’

Peggy had spent most of the day in a lather of excitement and expectation. Her Anne and the children were at last on their way home, and she wanted everything to be perfect for them, right down to the very last detail. She’d made an enormous Woolton pie for tea, and to follow there was an apple cobbler she’d put together from the fruit she’d stored last summer, which would be accompanied by a tin of evaporated milk. She’d changed the sheets on the big double bed Martin had been sleeping in, dusted and polished the furniture until it gleamed and then placed a vase of flowers on the dressing table to welcome Anne and the girls home.

Jane, Sarah and Danuta had caught her excitement and done their bit by hoovering the carpets, cleaning their rooms and washing all the bedlinen. Danuta had scrubbed and polished the bathroom until it gleamed, and Cordelia, bless her, had taken a damp mop to the hall’s floor tiles. Daisy had been told that Anne’s children were coming, and she’d very sweetly selected a couple of cuddly toys to put in the cots so they wouldn’t be lonely in the night.

After an early lunch of soup and toast, Sarah and Danuta accompanied Cordelia into town to look for a new hat, while Jane took Daisy off for a play on the beach so Peggy could get on and clean the basement bedroom for Charlie.

Peggy had to stop and almost pinch herself to believe that he really was coming home. She could have put him in the other large double room now that Brendon and his little family had moved into the flat, but she couldn’t be certain that the agent’s promises would hold water, so if their house wasn’t ready by the time their lease was up, she would have somewhere for them to sleep.