‘That’s what we was planning once we got hitched. But I’m waiting to hear from me mum so I knows where she is, and if the young ’uns are back with ’er from Salisbury. How about you and Mike?’

‘Everything’s up in the air at the moment. I’m waiting to hear from him to see if he’s got permission for us to get hitched while ’e’s on leave down here. That’s if he does get leave before they ship him home,’ Ruby added gloomily.

‘Won’t that be a bit strange? Getting married and then ’im going off straight away?’

Ruby shrugged. ‘Once it’s safe for me to travel, I’ll be going out there to join ’im,’ she said, her eyes shining with excitement. ‘It sounds ever so exciting, Ivy. Thick snow and husky dogs pulling sledges, and big deer they call elk – although I don’t like the sound of the timber wolves that howl in the night, or the bears what come down into the town scavenging for food.’

She giggled. ‘Mike’s mum has been writing and sending me pictures of what to expect when I get there. She seems ever so nice, Ivy, and I’m looking forward to meeting ’er and seeing it all for meself.’

‘Blimey, Rubes, that’s a big change from living in the Smoke.’

‘I don’t wanna go back to London – too many bad memories – and although I do love it ’ere, I wanna be with Mike – and if he’s in Canada, that’s where I’ll be going.’

‘Well, you’re braver than me, gel, I tell you that.’

Ruby laughed, gave her a hug and hurried down Mafeking Terrace towards the bungalow she rented from Cordelia.

Ivy watched her go and heaved a sigh. She really didn’t have much choice about the sort of job she could do, for she’d worked in factories since she’d left school at thirteen, and knew little else. But she had learnt to make bullets and rockets, and mines, so she might be able to turn her hand to something new.

‘Beggars can’t be choosers,’ she muttered, heading down the hill towards the town. ‘I’ll see if Peggy can get me some sort of work at Solly’s.’ The fact that she didn’t know one end of a sewing machine from another was neither here nor there – she’d damn well learn.

5

Peggy had just about managed to get through the day, but the weight of her bitter disappointment lingered, and there had been moments when she’d had to fight back the almost overwhelming urge to give in to her pain and cry. And as she left her office she knew that, for the first time in her life, she couldn’t yet face going home.