‘Oh, well,’ she sighed. ‘Tea it will have to be then. Come along, girls. Let’s find a nice biscuit.’

Charlie brought in the last of the large cases and dumped them down in the hall as the others drifted into the kitchen. ‘Who is that old woman?’ he whispered to Anne. ‘She’s not really our grandma, is she?’

Anne shook her head. ‘That’s Cordelia,’ she whispered back. ‘Surely you must remember her reading you bedtime stories, and helping with your homework?’

‘I do remember someone,’ he murmured, ‘but …’ He gave a deep sigh. ‘It’s all a muddle, Anne,’ he confessed. ‘Everything looks smaller and older than I remember – even Grandad.’

‘That’s because you’re bigger and don’t see things in the way the little boy you were when you left here did,’ she replied gently. ‘And of course everyone’s older. You’ve been away for six years and all of us have changed.’ She reached up to push the lock of hair out of his eyes. ‘Especially you. Now let’s have that tea and start settling in.’

Charlie felt adrift as he sat and listened to the chatter going on around the table while the three little girls played on the rug with Harvey who didn’t seem to mind them dressing him up in doll’s blankets and bonnets. He’d been introduced to Jane and Sarah who looked very sophisticated and made him feel awkward, but Danuta seemed all right, even though she spoke in the same funny way as Claus. He vaguely wondered if she was German too, but when she started talking about going back to Poland, he realised his mistake.

He surreptitiously looked around the shabby kitchen, remembering it well, right down to the Kitchener range in the chimney breast and the dresser strewn with all sorts of discarded letters and bits and bobs. It was a far cry from Auntie Vi’s spacious farmhouse kitchen with its large scrubbed pine table, vast dressers and tiled floor, but it felt the same – homely and welcoming.

He watched his mother who was in animated conversation with Anne and wondered where all her softness had gone, for he remembered snuggling up to her as a little boy and nestling his head in her pillowy chest. Now she looked thin and very small, and he could only suppose the strict rationing must have been the cause.

Auntie Vi had warned him about the lack of milk, eggs, honey and butter he’d find here, and in that moment, he wished he’d thought to bring some to help feed his mother up. Auntie Vi was very hot on feeding people and provided lashings of everything. He would miss Vi, and suspected he’d have to get used to smaller portions from now on.