Doris had switched on the electric fire to chase away the chill of evening as she waited for John to return. The thoughts and anxieties were churning in her head along with the conflicting ideas of what she should do if John ended things between them.

Unable to sit there doing nothing, she went to the window and closed the curtains even though it was still quite light outside. She then went into the kitchen to make a pot of tea and pore over the lovely snapshots Anthony had brought for her.

There was one in particular that stood out. It was of little Teddy in the sweetest romper suit, sitting on a metal rocking horse in the garden, and smiling up at whoever was taking the picture. Doris decided she would go to the shops at lunchtime on Monday and find a frame so she could display it on the mantelpiece with the others.

Carrying her tea back into the warmth of the sitting room, she sat down, looked nervously at her watch and lit a cigarette. She’d smoked too much this afternoon, but her nerves were in shreds, and there was still no sign of John even though it was now after seven.

‘Where on earth have you got to?’ she muttered fretfully. ‘You must realise how worried I’d be.’

She sipped from the teacup and clattered it back in the saucer as the most awful possibility occurred to her. He might already have returned to the next-door bungalow without coming to see her first, and was sitting in there avoiding her because he wanted to break off their engagement and didn’t know how to tell her. She knew he hated confrontation, and whatever had gone on with Michael earlier must have really upset him, but that was no excuse, and if he was hiding from her, then he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.

Doris stubbed out her cigarette and got to her feet. She would discover for herself the sort of man he was, and make him tell her the truth about what had gone on between him and his son today – even if it did mean the engagement was over. Going to her bedroom to fetch her jacket, she heard the key turn in the lock of the front door and stepped into the hall, ready to confront him.

‘Doris, my dear girl,’ he said in a fluster. ‘I am sorry I’m so late back. You must have wondered where on earth I’d got to.’

She let him take her hands but wasn’t ready quite yet to forgive him. ‘I was beginning to worry that something had happened to you,’ she murmured. ‘You’ve been gone for four hours.’