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‘That sounds very sensible. Any employer will look favourably on someone who has stayed on at school a little longer. Education is never a waste of time.’

‘So – you would advise me to do that?’

Miss Townsend nodded. ‘I would.’ She was thoughtful for a moment and then she leaned forward, resting her arms on the desk. ‘But you are, of course, already the statutory
school-leaving age, so there is something we could do. Would you be interested in working during the school holidays and perhaps on Saturdays in term time? That is usually our busiest day of the
week. It would also ease you into the work very nicely if you still want to come to us full time next year. And,’ the woman smiled, acknowledging her own advantage in the idea, ‘we
could see how you shape up too.’

‘I’d like that, Miss Townsend. I’d like that very much. Thank you.’

‘That’s settled, then,’ the personnel manager said, straightening up and shuffling a few papers on her desk. ‘You can start at the beginning of January. You’ll get
thrown in at the deep end because that’s our traditional sale time, but I’ll mind I put you with one of our senior members of the sales staff, who’ll look after you.’

And so, Shirley was the happiest member of the family to sit down to Christmas dinner that day. ‘Let’s play charades this afternoon,’ she suggested.

‘I want to play with my new board game,’ Reggie said. ‘Snakes and Ladders.’

Reggie’s woolly stocking had been bulging when he woke up that morning, quite pulled out of shape with all the different presents: colouring books and paints, a whip and top, a small boat
with white cotton sails, chocolate and, pushed into the toe, were three bright new pennies. He’d been a lucky boy – the family had spoiled him – but there was one gift he’d
turned his nose up at – a gas mask container.

‘But I like charades,’ Shirley said. ‘We played it last year.’

Beth laughed. ‘We play it
every
year, Shirl. But don’t worry, we’ll have time to play everything.’

‘It’s a tradition that we play charades, isn’t it?’ Shirley persisted. ‘We don’t need to stop doing things just because there are no Christmas lights up this
year and the blackout’ll have to go up before tea.’

Edie sighed as she glanced around her best parlour. That was another tradition; they always had Christmas dinner in the front room. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday were the only times they ate
in this room, though it was used on other occasions, as it had been for the recent wedding. Now, coloured paper chains were looped across the room between the picture rails and a spindly artificial
tree sat in one corner. They’d made the effort and yet there was not the same spirit in the room.

Something – and someone – was missing.

Word came from Laurence spasmodically. They knew he was somewhere in France by now and the news was bleak. And at home – just as Lil had warned – rationing began
in January 1940.

‘How are we supposed to feed our families on this?’ Edie moaned to her friend as they spread out their ration books on the table and totted up just how much they could get each
week.

‘It says here,’ Edie went on, reading from a piece of paper, ‘that meat is likely to be rationed next month but for the time being we don’t need coupons for brawn and
sausages.’

‘Mebbe so, but what sort of rubbish will they put into sausages and the like?’ Lil muttered morosely.

‘They’ll feel the sharp end of my tongue, if they do,’ Edie said and then carried on with her reading aloud. ‘We can also get poultry, game – and fish. Oh well,
that’s all right, then.’ She smiled. ‘We’ll be all right in Grimsby, won’t we?’

‘I read somewhere that even if you don’t need coupons, it’s going to be rationed on the basis of value.’

‘There’s got to be some sort of control, else people will start to hoard.’

‘It’s going to be an offence to do that, so I’ve heard.’

‘Quite right too,’ Edie said with asperity. ‘We’ve all got to pull together to get through this.’ Her face fell as she added, ‘I just hope my Laurence comes
back safe and sound. I can’t help being selfish about that.’

‘Of course you can’t. By the way, what’s Shirley going to do when she leaves school this summer? I hear you’ve persuaded her to stay on until then.’

Edie laughed wryly. ‘Yes, we have – at least, Beth did – but it was a struggle. She’s a little madam, that one. I understand that it was Irene who tipped the balance,
though.’

‘Was it?’ Lil raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s the first I’ve heard.’

‘Shirley wanted to leave school as soon as she could and Irene asked at Oldroyd’s if there were any jobs going. She had an interview with someone in December and they advised Shirley
to stay on. But they offered for her to work Saturdays to see how she gets on. She starts this week.’ Edie gave a thoughtful sigh. ‘Funny, really, how life pans out, isn’t it? My
mam would have given her eye teeth for me to have stayed on and taken exams. She wanted both me and Jessie to work in an office. She thought it would be a “nice” job.’

‘You’ve done a much better job, duck, raising a wonderful family,’ Lil reassured her.

‘Aye, but they’re all going to be leaving me now, one way or another, aren’t they?’ Edie said sadly.

Beth was still at home, but she was restless. The Forsters hadn’t asked her to go back to London yet, much to Edie’s relief but to Beth’s increasing
agitation.

‘I must do
something
,’ she said, her warm, brown eyes troubled. ‘They’ll start conscripting single young women soon – I’m sure of it – and if
I’m not careful, I’ll get drafted into something I don’t want to do.’

‘What
do
you want to do?’ Edie asked, though she feared the answer. She bent her head over her knitting as she sat beside the fire. Archie, on the opposite side of the hearth,
was pretending to read the newspaper but his attention was divided. He was listening to Edie and Beth.

‘I don’t really know,’ Beth sighed. ‘That’s the trouble. I only know I must get involved. I can’t bear sitting about doing nothing.’

‘You could come down the WVS with me an’ Lil. They’re always glad of another pair of hands.’

Beth laughed. ‘No offence, Mam, but it’s hardly my scene, is it? A lot of old ladies knitting and gossiping.’

Behind his paper, Archie chuckled softly, but he said nothing whilst Beth stared into the fire thinking hard. At last, her mind made up, she said, ‘I’ll write to Alan and find out if
there’s any work for me in London. The War Office, maybe. That’s where he is now. If not, I’ll look at one of the services and join up. I won’t wait for conscription –
I’ll volunteer.’

Archie and Edie glanced at each other across the hearth, their hearts sinking.

‘I tell you what you could do, love,’ Archie said with seeming casualness, but the motive behind his suggestion was to try to keep his beloved Beth here at home for as long as
possible. ‘You could ask your Uncle Harry to teach you to drive.’

Harry Charlton was the only one in the family to own a car. He’d always been generous and had often taken Edie’s children out in it for a Sunday afternoon drive to the seafront at
Cleethorpes where they’d spend a happy afternoon building sandcastles on the beach or running in and out of the waves, shrieking with laughter at the cold water.

‘Do you think he’ll be able to spare the petrol for something like that?’ Beth asked doubtfully. Petrol rationing had started the previous September.

‘You can only ask, love,’ Archie said mildly and returned to reading his newspaper, but the print blurred before his eyes. Had he done the right thing in suggesting she should learn
to drive? Perhaps not, if it meant she might end up driving ambulances through the bombed streets of the capital.

But Harry was only too happy to teach his niece to drive.

‘I don’t use my car much and I’m thinking of taking it off the road while the war’s on, but before I do, we’ll get you driving.’

The two of them spent several happy hours bowling along the country lanes on the outskirts of Grimsby.

‘You’re a natural,’ he told her. ‘I’ve never seen anyone pick it up so quickly. Are you planning to volunteer? Is that it?’

‘I must do something, Uncle Harry. I’m bored to tears at home. Sorry, that sounds awful, but I am, and I thought driving might be useful. Actually, it was Dad who suggested it, but I
think he’s right.’

Harry said nothing. Archie had had a quiet word with his brother-in-law and Harry knew the reasoning behind her father’s idea. But he wasn’t sure it was going to help; Beth wanted
involvement and excitement and nothing and no one was going to stand in her way. Harry sighed inwardly. He loved all his nephews and nieces, but like Archie, he recognized that Beth was someone
special – very special. He just hoped and prayed she would stay safe.

At the beginning of April, when the disturbing news came that Hitler had invaded Denmark and Norway, Irene, however, had a piece of good news.

‘Mam,’ she said shyly one morning. ‘I went to the doctor yesterday.’

‘Oh ducky, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing’s wrong, Mam. I’m going to have a baby, that’s all.’

Lil stared at her for a moment before hugging her and saying, ‘“All”, she says. “That’s all”, as if it isn’t the most marvellous news ever. Oh, wait
till Edie hears this!’

‘D’you want to tell her, Mam? I don’t mind if you do.’

Lil was bursting with pride, but she steeled herself to say, ‘No, no, that should be Frank, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to contain myself until he gets home tonight.
I’d best stay out of her way. She’ll read it in my face.’

‘But aren’t you meant to be going to the WVS centre with her today?’

‘Oh dear, yes, it’s Thursday, isn’t it?’

Now Lil was faced with a dilemma. She knew she wouldn’t be able to keep Irene’s secret if she was to be with Edie for more than a few minutes, let alone most of the day.

‘Oh, go on, Mam. It won’t matter if you do let the cat out of the bag. Frank won’t make a fuss. He was that thrilled when I told him last night after we went to bed, I reckon
he wanted to wake the whole street up there and then.’

Frank had gone out early to look for work but neither of them knew what time he might return.

‘I just didn’t want to spoil his surprise. I’m sure he’d like to tell his family himself.’

‘If you can keep it to yourself, do, but don’t worry if she winkles it out of you. I know what Aunty Edie’s like – and so does Frank.’ She laughed. ‘He used
to tell me when we were kids at school that he could never keep anything he’d done from her. “I shall find out,” she used to say to him, “so you might as well tell me
yarsen.”’

‘I remember,’ Lil murmured and then sighed. ‘Oh well, I’ll do my best.’

As it happened, Edie had some news of her own and she was so wrapped up in telling Lil all about it that she didn’t seem to notice Lil’s happy smile or the extra twinkle in her
eyes.

‘Beth’s going away again.’

‘Oh Edie, no! Where? Back to the Forsters?’

‘I’m really not sure where she’s going, Lil, but it seems it’s Alan Forster’s fault – oh, dear, I shouldn’t say that, because she’ll have to do
some sort of war work eventually. She might even get called up. They’re already trying to persuade women to volunteer for the services.’

‘But there are other things she could do, aren’t there? What about the WVS or even the Land Army?’

Edie pursed her lips and shook her head. ‘No, she’s determined to go to London. It seems this Alan Forster is now involved in some sort of work in the War Office. She wrote to him
asking if there was anything she could do and he’s written back to say that she could be an enormous help there because she can speak French fluently.’

‘I don’t think I like the sound of that, Edie.’

‘No, and neither do I.’

‘What does Archie say?’

‘He doesn’t know yet, but he’ll be home tonight. I’m hoping she’ll listen to him.’

But the evening in the Kelsey household was taken over by Frank and Irene’s arrival with their exciting news. All day, Edie had been preoccupied with her own worries and Lil had escaped
any awkward questions.

Frank and Irene had arrived together after tea. ‘You’re going to be a grandma, Mam. How does that sound?’

Edie had given a shriek and enveloped first Frank and then Irene in her embrace. ‘That’s wonderful news! I’d better start knitting. And Archie, you can get the old cot down out
of the loft and make sure it’s in good repair. And me and your mam can watch out for a decent second-hand pram, Irene.’

The family laughed at her joy, but they all shared it and in the midst of it, Beth’s news went unsaid and it wasn’t until they were getting ready for bed together that Edie
remembered to tell Archie.

‘You’ll have a word with her, won’t you? Try to stop her going. I don’t want her down in London.’

Much to her surprise – and not a little disappointment – Archie said, ‘I won’t be able to stop her, love, and besides, even if I could, I’m not sure I’d want
to. As a single young woman, she’s going to have to do something. It might be better if she does something now which is her own choice.’

‘But living in London, Archie . . .’

‘I’m sure Mr Forster will make sure she’s all right.’ He chuckled. ‘Besides, she might be working in a nice office. What would your mam have said to that,
eh?’

Edie had the grace to smile.

Archie insisted that they all went to the railway station to see Beth off.

‘I’d rather you didn’t, Dad. I don’t like goodbyes.’

He forced a laugh, though her words sounded prophetic. ‘It’s not “goodbye” only – what is it you’d say now?’

She smiled weakly. ‘
Au revoir.
’

‘Doesn’t that mean “till we meet again”?’

‘Sort of.’

‘There you are, then. See, even I know a bit of French.’

It was quite a gathering on the platform. They were jostled by soldiers going back to camp from leave and all their families who’d come to wish them well. There was laughter, but plenty of
tears too with wives and sweethearts clinging to their menfolk until the very last second. Young children – those who had not already been evacuated – sensed the pathos of the moment
and cried loudly.