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The black clouds of grief slowly lifted for Beth as the weeks to Christmas passed.

A letter came from Mr Boyle in Ireland asking if she would be willing to let the cottage for at least six months.

He had a client, Mr Halstead, who had engineering businesses in both Cork and Dublin.

He, his wife and two children had been living in Dublin but wanted to settle near Cork.

A six-month tenancy would give them time to find the right property to buy, and they hoped by then the Emergency would be over.

Beth was delighted to accept. She still intended to find some permanent solution for the cottage, but this would ensure the place was looked after until then.

She had very few personal possessions left there, having brought most things back on her last visit.

But Kathleen would pack any remaining stuff away.

She hoped these tenants would keep Kathleen on, and wondered if she could make that a condition of the tenancy.

She wrote back immediately, agreeing and raising the question of Kathleen. That done, she found she was more enthusiastic about plans for Christmas.

‘Do you think some of the Jewish children you helped find foster homes and clothes for might like to go to the pantomime?’ Beth asked.

‘It’s Cinderella – I saw them putting up posters the other day.

I’ll gladly buy the tickets, but we need to find out just how many will be needed, and the best day to see the show. I thought Boxing Day would be good.’

‘What a brilliant idea,’ Rose agreed, beaming from ear to ear. ‘I know the right person to ask about how many children. I can get onto that right away. What fun! I haven’t been to a pantomime since Myles was about ten or eleven. We used to go every year until then.’

‘I’ve never been to one,’ Beth admitted. ‘Are they fun?’

‘Hilarious,’ Rose laughed. ‘Terrible jokes, lots of audience participation, the Prince is a girl and the Ugly Sisters men in ridiculous costumes.’

‘I used to look at the posters at the theatre in Whitechapel,’ Beth remembered. ‘I wanted to be dressed like the Fairy Godmother.’

Beth almost never mentioned incidents from her childhood, but that little anecdote made Rose realize why she so much wanted the Jewish children to go.

‘We will organize it,’ Rose said firmly. ‘Leave collecting names and numbers to me. We will need some adults too for supervision. I expect if there’s quite a big number we can get a reduced ticket price.’

A week later, Beth was in Clifton Village begging sweets from shopkeepers.

Her idea was to give a little cone of sweets to every child as they went into the theatre.

The cost wasn’t a problem, she was happy to pay, it was just the rationing coupons needed.

But already Beth had found most shopkeepers were generous, claiming they would ask some of their customers to donate coupons.

Rose had found there were twenty-eight Jewish children to buy tickets for, and so far they had ten adults, including herself and Beth, to supervise.

That seemed a fair ratio. These children had been through so much having to leave their parents back in Germany, and mostly they were better behaved than their privileged English counterparts.

As Beth came out of a shop in The Mall at four in the afternoon with a bulging bag of sweets in her hand, she caught sight of someone who almost made her drop the bag.

It was Harry, walking towards her without a crutch or walking stick.

‘Beth!’ he called out gleefully. ‘You aren’t going to believe this, but I was just wishing I knew your address so I could find you. I’ve missed you.’

‘I’ve missed you too,’ she said, and was aware her wide smile proved how delighted she was to see him again. ‘I thought you’d be fit enough by now to be sent off to some new hellhole.’

‘Let’s get a cup of tea,’ he suggested. ‘I’d rather have a pint but they aren’t open yet.’

‘First I’d better put these in a shopping bag before I drop them,’ she said, groping in her pocket for the string bag she kept there.

‘That’s one helluva lot of sweets!’

‘Not for us to tuck into,’ she laughed, and quickly explained.

They went into a teashop on Regent Street.

At first Beth could hardly get words out.

Not only was she excited to see him again, but he looked so handsome.

He was clean-shaven, his hair well cut, and his tweed jacket and grey flannel trousers, with a red scarf flung over one shoulder, made him look quite the gentleman.

‘Did you go to Cornwall?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘It was as sad as I’d expected. But it had to be done. His family needed my support.’

The waitress came over then, and they ordered a pot of tea and some crumpets.

‘And since the memorial service?’ Harry continued once the waitress had gone.

She smiled. ‘Every day is easier. Planning this trip to the panto has helped. And being up at the convalescent home is good too. I’m putting all my energy into thinking about stuff to do for Christmas. But what about you?’

‘Well, I’ve passed the army medical as completely fit, and any day now I could get ordered to join my mob.

They’re in Germany now, and with the RAF bombing the guts out of the place I’m not even sure where we’ll fit in.

No doubt I’ll find out the moment I get there.

My folks are hoping I won’t have to go till after Christmas, but I doubt I could be that lucky. ’

‘Can’t you malinger a bit, say your leg hurts?’

‘I would if I thought it would work, but when the army say jump, you must. Once a doc has cleared you, that’s it. But you could make me a lot happier if you’d come out to dinner with me tonight?’

She blushed furiously and hung her head.

‘Am I that scary?’ he said, lifting her chin with one finger. ‘After all the quite personal stuff you’ve done for me?’

‘Perhaps it’s that,’ she managed to smile. ‘We aren’t supposed to see patients as dinner dates.’

‘But I’m no longer a patient, and we are both out Christmas shopping.’

‘I would like to come to dinner with you,’ she said. ‘By the way, I don’t see you carrying any presents. I hope you’ve bought something for your mother at least.’

‘That’s already been done. I got her and my father books they wanted. Luckily they aren’t rationed or in short supply. I came out today to try and find some oranges. A tall order, it seems.’

‘I don’t think you’ll be lucky enough to find them,’ Beth said. ‘I haven’t seen one since the outbreak of war. Or a banana!’

‘We had the occasional orange in France, but they were pretty ropey, and sometimes peaches too, which were good. I missed crunchy English apples back then, but now that’s all we’ve got here, I’m sick of them.’

‘Are you going to stay in the army after the war?’ she asked.

‘Yes, well at least for a few years. The whole of Europe will be a mess afterwards, Poles killing Germans, Hungarians getting a lot of stick for siding with the Germans, Italians undecided whose side they’re on.

As for the Russians, they’ll be wanting to fight everyone.

We and the Yanks will have to police things. ’

‘That sounds awful. I only imagined buildings and roads to be rebuilt.’

‘If only it were that simple,’ he sighed.

‘Railways, bridges and hospitals blown up, shortages of food and everything else. No doubt you’ve heard the stories flying around about concentration camps, the death camps and massacres.

Even if it isn’t all true it will be a real mess with all the displaced people.

It’s awful here in the cities, so many people lost their homes, but we weren’t invaded by the Germans, so we got off lightly. ’

‘I liked to imagine all the servicemen coming home as conquering heroes,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think for a moment about the aftermath.’

‘Many enlisted men will come home soon after the end, but regulars like me, no chance. But we haven’t quite won yet.

There’s still some serious fighting to be done, and there’s the Japanese to crack too, plus lots more stuff in the Far East. But things are looking more positive.

And you, Beth, are you going to stay looking after Mrs Cullen? Or go back to Ireland?’

‘I don’t think I’ll ever want to leave Rose. I’ve just got a tenant going into the Irish cottage for six months. Maybe I’ll sell it once the war is over. I just don’t know. But after this tea, why don’t you walk home with me and meet Rose. She’ll be delighted, and it’s not far.’

On the short journey home, Harry carried the string bag with the sweets and tucked her hand through his arm. ‘That’s cosier,’ he said. ‘When did you last go out to dinner with a man?’

‘Over three years ago with Jack,’ she said. ‘Sad to say, since then I’ve only been out after dark a couple of times, to the cinema with Rose and to a concert at the church. And last New Year, Rose and I went out. That’s it, my frantically busy social life in a nutshell.’

He grinned. ‘I shall rectify that. That is if I don’t get my orders to go to Germany until the New Year. We’ll go dancing, to the cinema, and maybe I’ll even come to the pantomime with you and the kids.’

‘You wouldn’t want to do that, surely?’ she asked in astonishment.

Harry shrugged. ‘Why not, I like pantos and kids.’

Rose’s face lit up when Beth came in with Harry. ‘Let me guess! Harry with the broken leg.’

Harry laughed and shook her hand. ‘The very same. Sergeant Harry Irwin. I ran into Beth in Clifton Village. We had tea and crumpets and she suggested I come here to meet you.’

‘I’m so glad to meet you,’ Rose beamed. ‘And no crutch or stick. How is the leg?’

‘Fine now. I’ve been walking a great deal and doing the exercises I was given. I even rode my old bike out to Weston-super-Mare the other day. I have to get fit for when I get my marching orders.’

‘Well, I hope that isn’t before Christmas,’ she said, and delved into the big bag of sweets. ‘These look good, Beth. How did you manage without coupons?’