Ivy slammed her way out, and Peggy relaxed back into the kitchen chair, little Daisy nestled sweetly against her breast. The changes at Beach View were already beginning, more swiftly than she’d expected, and once Fran and Robert had left, others would surely follow.

If Ivy couldn’t find work in Cliffehaven, then it was fairly certain that she and Andy would return to the East End of London where there was bound to be lots of work for them both. Danuta had already expressed a desire to return to Poland, and if things went the way Cissy wanted, her daughter could soon be sailing for America. Sarah would stay until the war in the Far East came to an end, and then join her mother and sister wherever the POWs were sent after their liberation.

And what of Rita? That she was in love with Peter was clear to everyone – but did she have the courage to follow her heart all the way to Australia, or would the ties of home be strengthened once her father returned from the battlefields of Europe? Peggy gave a deep sigh. She didn’t have all the answers but knew without a doubt that once she and Cordelia were left with Daisy, all those empty rooms would once again echo with the absence of those she loved.

Somerset

Anne left the bedroom door ajar so that motherly Auntie Vi could hear the girls should they wake. Avoiding the kitchen where Vi was in deep conversation with Bob and Claus, she went into the boot room, pulled on her wellingtons and coat, and let herself out of the side door. All was still in the gloaming of a night sky not yet fully dark. The cows were snuffling and shifting in their byre, the occasional bird called sleepily from the surrounding trees, and she could hear the soft hoot of one of the resident barn owls as it set off on silent wings for its night’s hunt.

Anne tied her headscarf under her chin and took a deep breath of the clean country air. She was forced to admit that Cissy’s barb about it being safe here had hit the mark – in fact, apart from one terrifying incident with a rogue German fighter plane, the war hadn’t touched them physically. Emotionally, of course, it was always there in the absence of her husband Martin, and the distance from home.