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Shirley pulled a face. ‘More or less. They’d ripped his pullover and thrown his satchel in a puddle and he’d got a bloody nose.’

‘Poor little scrap.’ Edie muttered. ‘None of it’s his fault, yet he has to bear the bullying and the cruel taunts about his mother, I bet.’

Ursula glanced at Shirley, but said nothing. She knew all about Irene and the trouble she had brought on the family.

It was Lil, who, on hearing what had happened, decided that she would be the one to take Tommy to and from school each day.

‘You’ve enough to do, Mam. I – I ought to go,’ Irene said hesitantly.

‘It’s only ten minutes’ walk. And it’ll do me good to get away from me work for a bit. Besides, me grandson’s safety comes first.’

After a week of taking and fetching Tommy, Lil was surprised by a loud summons from Edie, banging on the door between their yards. ‘Lil? You there, Lil?’

Lil approached the other side of the fence with trepidation. Now what? Was Frank back? Was this the day fateful decisions would be made?

‘What is it?’

Without preamble, Edie said, ‘I’ve seen you taking and fetching Tommy every day because that little trollop daren’t show her face, I expect. But I can fetch him home each
afternoon, if you like, and then he can have his tea with me.’

Lil hesitated for a moment before saying, ‘That’s very kind of you, Edie—’

‘It’s not kindness, Lil,’ Edie said harshly. ‘I want to see me grandson an’ I won’t stand by and see him bullied because of
her
.’ She turned away
without another word, entered her back door and slammed it behind her, leaving Lil staring after her.

And so they fell into a kind of routine, but it was an uneasy one of mutual help. Both sides of the feud, for that was what it had become, were at least united on one point; Tommy’s
wellbeing was paramount.

When Archie was at home, he took his turn in meeting Tommy out of school, and the big man’s presence was a warning to the would-be bullies. Once the nastiness had stopped, to
everyone’s relief, Tommy seemed to settle in well at the school. It would be a shame now, Archie thought, if he had to be uprooted and sent back to the country; new school, new classmates.
Another upheaval for the little lad.

Edie was sunk in gloom, not even the thought that the war was finally over could raise her spirits.

‘It says here,’ Archie said, jabbing at his newspaper, ‘that they’re increasing the rate at which servicemen are demobilized. A million men by December, they
reckon.’ He glanced up at Edie. ‘That might include Frank, love.’

But Edie was not to be comforted. ‘Mebbe,’ she murmured disconsolately. ‘But will he come home even then?’

‘He’ll have to sometime,’ Archie muttered. ‘He might as well get it over with.’ He paused and then asked, ‘Have you written to him?’ He held his breath,
waiting for the answer that he was sure was coming.

‘I certainly have,’ Edie said grimly, ‘and I’ve told him exactly what I think. Frank will listen to me. He’ll know I’m right. He wants to get shut of the
little trollop and fight her – in court, if necessary – for custody of Tommy.’ Edie met his gaze. ‘He can live with us. They both can and, if necessary, we’ll
move.’

‘Move? Whatever for?’

Edie jerked her head in the direction of Lil’s home. ‘To get away from them, of course.’

‘But – but what about Lil? You and Lil?’

‘There is no “me an’ Lil” any more, Archie. I don’t want owt to do with Lil Horton ever again.’

If there was any greater shock to be had than those Archie had suffered already, then this was it. He’d never dreamed he’d hear such words from Edie’s lips.

As the first Christmas since the war had ended approached, Archie had one more trip to sea, but he had had no chance to speak to Shirley as he’d intended to do; she had
had no more leave. Before he left, he said to Edie, ‘When you write to Shirley, Edie love, just ask her a bit more about Ursula, will you? I’m not sure about this girl she’s been
keeping company with. She’s still hanging around the docks, talking to unsavoury characters. I’ve seen her there several times. I’ve just got an uncomfortable feeling about her
and I don’t want Shirley getting in with someone – unsuitable. That’s all.’

Edie glared at him. The relationship between husband and wife was strained. It had been ever since Irene had arrived home and it was something that had never happened before in the whole of
their married life. But Edie was adamant in her withdrawal from Lil and her family – apart from Tommy, of course – and she knew that Archie still went round next door, still talked to
both Lil and Irene. He’d had the cheek to come back one day and say what a pretty little thing the baby was. That, as far as Edie was concerned, had been the last straw.

‘Are you saying I haven’t looked after me own daughter, Archie Kelsey? After all these years of bringing up your children when you’ve hardly been here. Oh, it’s all very
well to come home every few weeks and spoil ’em rotten. King for a Day, aren’t you, down Freeman Street, when you’ve money in your pocket?’

‘Edie love, I meant no such thing and you know it. It’s just this Ursula. She was on the docks again when I took Tommy down to see the ships after school yesterday. She was talking
to a right scruffy character. And I’d seen her with him before. That time when she told me there was a trawler late back – and there wasn’t. That was funny for a start.’

‘She’s a reporter for the newspaper, for heaven’s sake. She’s got to go all over the place to find news.

‘Is she employed by the
Telegraph
?’

‘Well – not exactly. She writes bits and pieces for them from what Shirley said. A freelance, she calls herself.’

‘There you are, then, even the folks at the paper have got doubts about her, else they’d have taken her on, wouldn’t they?’

‘Maybe – maybe not. Newspapers use freelances regularly, don’t they?’

‘Quite possibly, and I’m also sure they’ll verify anything a freelance sends in, but that still doesn’t answer my doubts about exactly who and what she is.’

‘What do you mean, “what she is”? You make it sound as if she’s a – as if she’s a –’ For once, even Edie was lost for words.

‘I don’t really know what I’m saying, love. It’s just that I’ve got this feeling that something’s not quite right.’

Edie laughed sarcastically. ‘And I thought it was women who were supposed to have intuition.’

Archie smiled weakly. ‘Aye, well, fishermen have too, you know.’

‘No – you’re a superstitious lot. That’s what you are.’

Now Archie’s smile broadened. ‘And one of ’em is not going to sea on a quarrel.’ He held out his arms. ‘Come on, love, don’t let’s argue. Give us a
kiss.’

Edie submitted to his kiss, but she couldn’t summon up the usual warmth or bring herself to say ‘Take care’ as she always had.

Before he’d reached the end of the street on his way to the docks, Edie was regretting her coolness towards him.

In Shirley’s next letter, she wrote,
I’ve been really lucky and got over a week off at Christmas and New Year and I was wondering if Ursula can come to us for
Christmas, Mam? She’s no family here and the old misery she lodges with is going to her daughter’s in Lincoln. Ursula will be on her own.

Edie wrote back at once.
She can, as far as I’m concerned, though she’ll have to share her rations with us. But I’d better tell you that your dad isn’t too sure about
her. And besides, won’t she be going home to Switzerland soon?

A week later, Shirley wrote,
I really don’t know Ursula’s plans – perhaps she’ll tell us at Christmas. But I do know she wants to stay and do a series of articles
about all the folks coming home after the war. You know, servicemen and women, evacuees – everybody
.

‘Well,’ Edie said aloud to the empty room as she folded Shirley’s letter and put it on the mantelpiece behind Laurence’s photograph. ‘It won’t be any good her
coming to this house for
that
, will it?’

The queues for food seemed just as long as they had during the wartime, but now people groused about it more.

‘I thought the war was supposed to be over,’ Jessie grumbled as she and Edie stood in a queue outside the butcher’s shop before going on to the WVS together. Lil no longer
helped out as their war efforts at the centre were winding down.

‘So they say,’ Edie murmured, ‘but I haven’t noticed much difference yet. No one’s coming home.’

Jessie glanced at her, but said nothing. She knew all about how not one of Edie’s family was coming back to live at home and she felt sorry for her sister. She knew, too, all about the
heartache Irene had brought upon the family and how Edie and Lil were no longer on speaking terms, though Jessie was shrewd enough to know that the blame for that lay at Edie’s door. In
Jessie’s mind, Lil needed her friend more than ever at this moment.

‘Have you heard anything from Beth?’

Edie pursed her lips and shook her head. ‘Not a word.’

Jessie squeezed her sister’s arm as they shuffled further up the queue. ‘She’ll come back,’ Jessie said. But Edie wasn’t sure. If she’d still been alive,
surely by now Beth would have made contact. And yet, wouldn’t the authorities have let them know if she had been killed, just as they had about Laurence? It was a mystery.

Jessie bit her lip and asked tentatively, ‘Have you spoken to Lil yet?’

Again Edie shook her head.

‘Well, you should, Edie. You’ve been friends for more years than I can count and it’s not her fault her daughter’s a little trollop.’

‘Isn’t it?’

Jessie cast a sly glance at her sister. Jessie had never been one to hold her tongue when there was something to be said and she wasn’t going to start now. ‘You can’t be held
responsible for what your kids do when they grow up, duck. Just be thankful that – so far – neither of your girls have got themselves in the family way.’

‘I hope I’ve brought them up to know what’s right and wrong,’ Edie said primly.

‘That’s not the point.’ Jessie paused for a brief moment before saying harshly. ‘It’s in the breed, Edie, isn’t it?’

Edie stared at her. It was the first time she could ever remember her sister referring to the fact that Edie herself had had a shotgun wedding.

‘Jessie, how could you?’ Edie said reproachfully, but Jessie only shrugged. ‘It’s a fact, though. And you know me, I only speak the truth, even though it might hurt
sometimes.’

She was right, but Edie was shocked that her own sister could fling it back into her face at a time like this. And Jessie was not finished yet. ‘You’ve maybe brought your daughters
up to be perfect because of what happened to you. But you want to watch your Shirley.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Mrs Doughty at the WVS was telling me that her hubby had seen Shirley hanging around the docks with that friend of hers when she was home on leave the last time.’

‘Ursula works for the
Telegraph
.’ Edie went on to make the same excuse to Jessie as she had to Archie. ‘She’s looking for stories and I expect Shirley was just
helping her. That’s all.’

Jessie pursed her lips and cast a disbelieving glance at Edie. ‘If you say so, Edie. If you say so. Come on, we’re next in line – if there’s anything left by
now.’

When Edie arrived home she felt unsettled. Jessie’s reference to her past and the advice that she should make up her quarrel with Lil, to say nothing of her warning about Shirley, had
disturbed Edie. There was no doubt she missed her friend dreadfully, but her own rigid moral code – no doubt born out of her own mistake – could not and would not condone what Irene had
done. She had been unfaithful to Frank, had cuckolded him, and Edie could not forgive her for that. She sighed heavily as she unpacked her shopping, such as it was, and asked herself if she was
really being unfair to Lil as Jessie had stated so bluntly. But this was different, this wasn’t just a young lass getting herself into trouble and marrying the father of her child as she and
Archie had done. They’d been engaged, planning to get married anyway. It just happened that the wedding had to be brought forward a little, that was all. This was totally different, she told
herself. This was infidelity of monstrous proportions. But was Lil to blame? At the moment, Edie couldn’t answer her own question.

And then there was Shirley. Archie had expressed doubts about Ursula and now Jessie had done the same. Whatever was she going to do about Shirley?

There was no pleasure in wrapping presents this year, nor hanging up the home-made paper chains and decorating the small artificial tree they’d had for years and which
was looking sadly dilapidated. Edie made the Christmas puddings and a cake but her heart was not in it. And worse still, she was having to do it all herself this year. There was no Lil to share the
planning and the preparation with. And there’d be no Lil and her family round Edie’s table on Christmas Day, though Edie hoped Tommy would be allowed to come round at some point, maybe
for tea.

Archie’s ship was due to dock two days before Christmas Eve on the evening high tide, but when the following morning dawned and he had still not come breezing in the back door, calling a
greeting as he always did, Edie began to worry. By the time Shirley arrived home on leave just after midday, Edie was pacing the hearth trying to decide whether or not she should go to the fish
docks to find out for herself what was happening. How she wished she could have gone next door to share her worries with Lil. But the gulf between them held her back. Besides, Irene and her little
bastard were still there and she certainly didn’t want to run into them. But she would have loved to have felt Lil’s arms around her and been able to pour out her fears to her
understanding friend. And no one knew better than Lil what it was like to wait for hours for news of a husband missing out at sea. And then, in Lil’s case, it had been the very worst
news.

‘The trains were packed,’ Shirley grumbled. ‘I reckon because the war’s over they’re letting as many home on leave as they can this Christmas. And, of course,
there’re lots of them being demobbed as well.’ She sat down in her father’s chair, eased off her shoes and rubbed her feet. ‘I feel as if I’ve been on my feet for
hours and then, when I got here, there’s some kind of flap on. The newspaper seller at the station was shouting about a trawler being lost at sea.’