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Irene stared at her mother for a moment, her mind working busily. ‘The nosy old cow. What did she tell you?’

‘Only what you’ve already told me, but she did find out that his first name was Ken.’ Cautiously, Lil asked, ‘What about his parents? Have you been in touch with them? I
mean, might they—?’

Reading her mother’s mind, Irene cut off the suggestion before it could even be voiced. ‘No, I haven’t. I don’t even know where they live. Besides, I wouldn’t let
them have her even if they wanted her. Marie’s mine and that’s an end of it.’

Lil turned away. Sadly, she thought, that was far from the end of it.

Three days later, Edie rapped loudly on the fence, once more. ‘Lil –
Lil
.’

The woman appeared at her back door, drying her hands on a rough towel. ‘Just doing a bit of washing.’

‘On a Thursday?’ Edie was incredulous. Washday was always on a Monday.

‘There’s a lot of washing with a—’ Lil stopped, embarrassed as Edie’s mouth hardened. Then she asked harshly, with more spirit in her tone than Edie could ever
remember hearing from her erstwhile friend, ‘What d’you want?’

‘I want you to tell that trollop of a daughter of yours to get herself and her bastard back to the countryside.’ Edie waved a letter in Lil’s face. ‘Frank’s written
to say he’s not coming home. See what that little trollop has done. But if she’s out of the way, then maybe my boy will come back.’

Shirley had gone back, but a letter had come in answer to the one she had written and Edie had had no compunction in opening it.

Lil, thinner than ever with the worry and upset her daughter’s homecoming had caused, blinked in the face of Edie’s wrath. ‘What – what do you mean?’

‘He’s written to say,’ Edie emphasized every word as if explaining to a child, ‘that he’s not coming home. He won’t get demobbed yet because he didn’t
go in at the beginning and though he could get compassionate leave, he doesn’t want to. All because of
her
. I’ve lost Laurence, Reggie doesn’t want to come back,
Shirley’s stopping on in the ATS and God knows what’s happened to Beth. And now this. Frank’s not coming either because of her.’

‘Oh Edie.’ Lil was almost in tears. She desperately wanted to put her arms around Edie as – in happier times – she would have done instantly. But now there was this awful
chasm between them that she feared would never be bridged. She was so afraid that their friendship was shattered for ever. And right now, she didn’t know what else to say; there was nothing
she
could
say, for she was all too well aware that the fault for this latest disappointment for Edie did indeed lie with Irene.

‘So you tell her, Lil, to go back out of the way, but she can leave Tommy with us.’

Lil stared at her for a brief moment before snapping, ‘She’s going nowhere. Her and the bairns – both of ’em – are staying put.’ With that she turned her back
on Edie and returned to her dolly tub, thumping the clothes with the posser with a viciousness she hadn’t known was in her nature.

The rift between the former friends deepened.

With no one at home now, when Archie was at sea, and the WVS work dwindling, Edie hardly knew how to fill the long, lonely days. She missed Lil more than she’d ever
admit and the noise of the crying infant next door only fuelled her anger. Even Tommy did not come into her house unless his granddad fetched him and Edie couldn’t even bring herself to ask
Lil to let him visit her when Archie was away. She counted the days and the hours until Archie would come home again, something she had never needed to do before. But now the days stretched
endlessly and his time at home was all too brief.

Archie had no intention of keeping his distance from his grandson and if that meant he had to see Irene – and even her baby – then so be it. As soon as he was home again, the next
morning after breakfast, he said casually, ‘I’m just off next door.’

He turned towards the back door, ignoring Edie’s glare. He could, of course, have said he was off to the pub – his wife would have thought nothing of that – but Archie had
never lied to Edie and he wasn’t going to start now. He might have hidden things from her – like the time he went to Dunkirk – but he would never deliberately lie to her.

‘Hello, Lil love,’ he said cheerfully when she opened the back door to him, her eyes wide with surprise and worry.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Nowt that I know of, love. Can I come in?’

‘Oh – yes – of course.’ She pulled the door wider and her small scullery was at once filled with his bulky presence.

‘I thought young Tommy might like a walk to the docks to see the ships. He wasn’t old enough before they went away and it’s high time he knew what his dad and his granddad did
– and his other granddad, an’ all,’ he added swiftly, anxious not to miss out the man after whom Tommy had been named.

Lil smiled weakly. ‘That’s good of you, Archie. He doesn’t get out much. We don’t let him play in the street. The other lads – you know.’

Archie frowned. ‘Being bullied, is he?’

Lil nodded and then smiled wanly. ‘Mind you, that girl your Shirley’s pally with saw them one afternoon and sorted the little tykes out, but, of course, she’s not always
around.’

Archie frowned. ‘Ursula, you mean?’ Something was still troubling him about Ursula, but he couldn’t really put his finger on it. ‘Anyway,’ he went on, pushing
thoughts of the girl out of his mind, ‘D’you reckon he’d like a walk out?’

‘I’m sure he would. Tommy – Tommy,’ she called, ‘your granddad’s here. He’s come to take you out.’

The boy jumped up from the table where he’d been drawing and hurled himself at Archie, wrapping his arms around his granddad’s legs. His delight at seeing Archie was undeniable, but
Irene, sitting near the hearth with the baby on her lap, looked unsure.

Patting the boy on the head so that he loosened his limpet hold, Archie moved closer to look down at the infant. ‘Irene, love, how are you?’ he murmured, but his gaze was on the
little girl chortling in her mother’s lap and kicking with sturdy limbs. ‘She’s a pretty little mite, isn’t she?’ he murmured. ‘She looks strong and
healthy.’

‘Aunty Edie said Frank’s not coming home because – because of me. Is that true?’

Archie sighed. ‘Well, I know he’s not coming home yet, love, but whether it’s all to do with’ – he gestured towards the baby – ‘I couldn’t really
say.’

‘Aunty Edie can,’ Irene said bitterly. ‘She’s adamant that it’s me who’s caused another member of her family not to come back.’

‘Has he written to you?’ Archie asked gently.

Irene pressed her lips together and shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. After a moment, when she had composed herself, she said, ‘If he’d just come home and talk to me,
then we could sort it out even if – even if he wants me to leave.’ She glanced up again at Archie. ‘But I want you to understand, Uncle Archie, that I’ll fight to keep
Tommy. Whatever Aunty Edie thinks, he’ll stay with me.’

‘Aye well, a little lad of his age should be with his mother, but . . .’ Archie sighed and stopped. He understood both sides of the argument; that was his trouble and he really
couldn’t decide which one to take. Instead, he chose to ignore the whole problem for the moment. Nothing could be done until Frank came home and made the decision; it was all up to Frank and
if he wasn’t coming back at the moment, they’d all have to just bide their time and wait and see. In the meantime, he could help out with young Tommy. ‘Come on, then, lad,
let’s you and me go and have a look if my ship’s all right.’

By the time Archie brought the boy back home, Tommy’s eyes were wide with wonder and he chattered with excitement. ‘Granddad took me all over his ship. I saw the engine room and the
fishing nets and oh – everything! And we saw Aunty Shirley’s friend, didn’t we, Granddad?’

Ursula had been on the dockside again, this time talking to a scruffy, bearded fellow, who was gesticulating wildly with his hands. She had seemed to be pleading with him, but her entreaties
were being met with an obvious refusal. Archie watched as the man turned away. She followed him and caught hold of his arm but he shook her off and quickened his pace away from her. She was left
standing, just staring after him, her shoulders slumped. Then, as she turned, she caught sight of Archie and Tommy. For a moment she seemed disconcerted, but then Archie noticed her straighten her
shoulders, force a smile on her face and walk deliberately towards them.

‘Hello, love,’ Archie said, though he couldn’t prevent a wariness creeping into his tone, even though he tried hard to keep it friendly and non-judgmental.

‘I was trying to get a story,’ Ursula began to explain quickly, her voice high-pitched. ‘There’s – there’s a trawler late back and I wanted to know about it,
but he wouldn’t tell me anything.’

Archie frowned, suddenly anxious. If there was a trawler missing, then he certainly wanted to know about it. ‘Which ship? Do you know?’

Ursula shrugged. ‘No.’

‘Then I’ll find out. Come on, Tommy, we’ll go to the dock office and—’

‘Oh no, please don’t trouble yourself.’ She caught hold of his arm as if to prevent him. ‘It’s – it’s not important.’

He stared at her for a moment. ‘Of course it’s important. If a ship’s late in, it might be in trouble. This has nothing to do with you writing about it for the paper.
I
need to know and I need to know now.’

Her hand dropped from his arm and he was sure that a look of fear crossed her eyes. ‘I see,’ she said and her voice was flat, devoid of emotion.

‘You can come with us if you like,’ he said more gently.

She shook her head. ‘No, no, I must – get back – to the newspaper – tell them I couldn’t find anything out.’

‘I’ll let you know,’ he promised as he moved away, anxious to get to the dock office.

She pushed her hands deep into the pockets of her raincoat and nodded. He strode away, Tommy taking little running steps to keep up with the man’s long strides. When Archie glanced back a
few moments later, the girl had disappeared.

‘There’s no ship missing, Archie,’ Jack Reeves told him.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Positive. Everyone who’s supposed to be back has docked. What made you think a ship was missing?’

‘Oh – just some girl. She reckoned one of the trawlers was late. She must have got it wrong.’

Jack smiled knowingly and arched his eyebrows. ‘D’you mean that girl who’s always hanging round the docks? Ursula somebody?’

‘Aye, that’s her. Do you know owt about her?’

Jack shrugged. ‘Not really, Archie. We just all assumed she was – you know . . .’

Archie blinked. ‘I hope you’re wrong there, Jack. She’s a friend of my daughter’s. She told us she worked for the
Telegraph
and that she was just looking for news
stories.’

‘Did she now?’ Jack murmured, a thoughtful frown on his face.

Archie, too, was puzzled and, as he listened to his grandson’s lively chatter as they walked home, he determined to question Shirley more about her friend the next time she came home on
leave.

He sighed. It was difficult – it always had been – being away at sea so much. He hadn’t been able to keep his eye on his family as they were growing up. Edie had done a
wonderful job on her own for much of the time, but just now and then he realized, with sadness, that a father’s hand had been needed on occasions. And he hadn’t been there. He just
hoped his daughter hadn’t been getting into bad company. Still, Shirley was safely away now. The ATS was sorting her out. Even he could see that she was a much happier – and nicer
– person. Though he was still a little cross with her that she’d interfered in this business between Irene and Frank. But then, he argued with himself, perhaps it was better that Frank
knew now. At least he would have some thinking time before he did come home. Archie was unsure as to what Shirley’s true motive had been. Once, it would have been purely out of spite, but now
– he wasn’t so sure.

If only, he thought, Beth had been here. She would have brought a calming influence to all of them. With each day that passed, Archie grew more anxious about Beth and he was sure it was the same
for Edie, though they never spoke about it. The only person he felt able to confide in was Harry when they met for a drink in the pub.

‘Haven’t you heard a word from her, not even now it’s all over?’ Harry was incredulous when Archie told him of his worries.

Archie shook his head, not trusting himself to speak for the moment, so big was the lump in his throat.

‘Surely she should be coming home by now,’ Harry said, voicing Archie’s innermost fears. ‘I mean, she’s not in the forces like Frank, is she? He’ll not get
demobbed until he’s told, but Beth ought to be free to come home.’

‘I think she joined the FANYs. That’s what she told us, anyway.’

Harry frowned. ‘That’s nursing, isn’t it?’

‘So I believe.’

‘Oh – well, then – she might be abroad, I suppose.’

‘Mm.’

Harry glanced at Archie. ‘You sound doubtful.’

‘No – no, not about that, Harry, it’s just that—’ He hesitated.

‘Come on, man, spit it out.’

Archie sighed, looking down into his beer and twisting the glass round and round. ‘It’s just that I’ve heard whispers – rumours, you know – that the FANYs were
sometimes used as a cover for – for women agents.’

Harry gaped at him. ‘The sort that were dropped into occupied Europe to help the local resistance groups?’ Rumours had circulated amongst the fishing fraternity, who, in other parts
of the country, especially on the south coast, had sometimes been used to take agents to French shores.

Archie nodded and the two men were silent for several minutes.

‘She always did crave excitement, did our Beth,’ Archie murmured at last.

‘Those postcards you got,’ Harry said slowly, as if thinking aloud. ‘Where did they come from?’

‘London. Always London.’

‘And never a letter?’

Archie shook his head.

Now, it was Harry who said thoughtfully, ‘Mm.’ And after yet another pause, he added quietly, ‘Odd that, knowing your Beth. Always the chatty one, the one with all the
news.’