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‘I shall have to return to Canada in a few days,’ Myles said. ‘My wife feels bad enough not being able to come with me, without me lingering longer.’

‘When do you want me to move out?’ Beth asked.

‘Move out?’ He looked puzzled at the question. ‘The house is yours; Mother left it to you.’

Beth looked at him askance. ‘No, you’re mistaken, Myles. How can you even think that?’

‘It’s true, Beth. She wrote ages ago to tell me she’d changed her will, and I assumed she’d told you this. I must confess that in an uncharitable moment before I met you, I even imagined that was why you stayed with her.’

‘I think almost anyone would think that,’ Beth said, frowning at the thought of it. ‘But how can I accept such a huge gift? The house is full of memories of you as a baby and young boy, of your lovely father too. And there’s all the beautiful furniture he made.’

Myles reached out and took her hand. ‘I know now that you were never a gold-digger. My mother was very astute, and she’d have realized that very quickly.

She loved the house, but she loved you too, and she knew you’d be the keeper of her good memories, Father’s furniture included.

Don’t worry about me, or my feelings– I get everything else, a considerable sum. But the house is yours.’

Beth was in shock. ‘I can’t possibly accept it, it isn’t right.’ Her voice was shaky. This was too much for her to take in.

‘Of course you can accept it. I know now how much she thought of you, and how you enriched her life. Besides, we have a house in Canada three times the size of Lamb Lane, and we would never come back here to live.’

‘I can’t believe it.’ Beth’s voice had dropped to a whisper and she felt faint.

Myles opened the bag of ham sandwiches. ‘Eat one,’ he ordered her. ‘Your blood sugar is running low, and we don’t want that. Aren’t you glad you haven’t got to move?’

‘Well, yes I am, very glad, but I never expected this for one moment. I feel guilty.’

Myles put a sandwich in her hand and grinned like a schoolboy. ‘The rest of England is whooping it up because the war is over. My mother has handed you an extra dose of joy. So don’t look for reasons to be troubled by her generosity.’

It was a very strange kind of day. Peaceful as it was in the woods, they could hear a low rumble of noise coming from the city– singing, bands playing, and people shouting. It wasn’t loud enough to disturb, just a reminder that this was a day they were never going to forget.

‘Things will be much the same for a while,’ Myles said thoughtfully as they walked on further into the woods.

‘The blackout will go immediately, of course, but you will have rationing here for some time yet. Slowly the damaged properties will be mended, but there’s going to be shortages of paint, timber and just about everything else until they get the factories up and running again. ’

‘Harry said it would be terrible over in Europe, the Poles fighting the Germans, Hungarians fighting the Russians, and just about every other nationality joining in the revenge fray. There will be rapes, looting, and people starving, much worse than here. And all the displaced people trying to get home.’

‘I’m afraid Harry is right, people will want revenge, and there will be savagery. But who can blame them. Imagine the heartbreak for those who had loved ones snatched and taken to work in concentration camps, and who they will never see again.’

‘This is all a bit serious for a day which is intended to celebrate victory,’ Beth said.

‘Yes, we must stop it now, and you, Beth, must understand that you completely deserve the inheritance from my mother. Tomorrow I will contact her solicitor and instruct them to draw up the necessary documents.’

‘Are there any things in the house that you want?’ she asked. ‘I can get them sent to you.’

‘Photographs are all I want,’ he said, smiling warmly at her. ‘That’s another job for tomorrow. Now, shall we make our way home?’

A jubilant letter came from Harry the following day.

He’d written and posted it before Rose died and the war had officially ended, yet he sounded like he knew Germany was about to surrender.

‘There will be a great deal of clearing up and sorting to do here,’ he wrote.

‘I may get a brief leave soon, but I’ll have to come back straight after.

But hopefully long enough for us to get married. That is, if you still want to.’

She guessed that by now he would have the letter in which she told him about Myles arriving and Rose dying. But she sat down and wrote another brief and loving letter saying of course she still wanted to get married. The news of the house could wait till he got here.

‘I’m really sorry I didn’t get to meet Harry,’ Myles said as he was at the door, ready to leave, a taxi outside to take him to catch his plane home.

He cupped Beth’s face in both his hands and kissed her cheeks.

‘I will think of you as the younger sister I always wanted. Be happy with Harry and keep in touch. I’d love you both to come to Canada so we can show you what an amazing country it is. Promise me?’

Beth smiled. She liked Myles so much, and wished he didn’t have to leave England. ‘Yes, I promise. I had started to think of you as my brother in those afternoons when we played cards with Rose. Now go or the taxi might leave. Safe journey home.’

Beth felt very emotional as she waved Myles goodbye. She had enjoyed his company so much and he was her last link with Rose. She wandered aimlessly into the living room and found it too quiet, too empty, and the knowledge that it now belonged to her was scary. Lovely, but scary.

She could sense Rose everywhere, her taste in pictures, the table mats, each a close-up of a different rose, and the cushions, no two the same.

‘You will have to learn to put your mark on it,’ she said aloud, and her voice seemed to boom round the empty room. ‘And you’d better start thinking what to do about Clancy’s Cottage.’

She knew she wasn’t going back there. It had been lovely but her home was here in England. And while thinking about it, she picked up the telephone and rang Mr Boyle.

‘Well, hullo,’ he boomed. ‘How are you now the Inconvenience is over.’ He was jokingly using the wrong word of course, and she laughed.

‘Relieved, but Mrs Cullen died just before VE Day. Her son has been here and he’s just left, but it got me thinking about Clancy’s Cottage and what I should do about it.’

‘No tenants in there now, but no doubt enquiries will soon come rolling in,’ he said cheerfully.

‘I have decided it should go to a charity, preferably for sick children to recover, or city children who need a holiday by the sea. But not a Catholic charity, if that’s possible.’

He paused before answering, clearly shocked by what she’d said.

‘That sounds like a good and kind plan,’ he said. ‘As it happens I know the very organization to approach.’

‘Great. I thought the dining room, which never gets used, could be made into an extra bedroom.’

‘My goodness, Miss Manning, you’ve been giving this a lot of thought.’

‘Yes I have. Not so much lately while Mrs Cullen was sick, but on and off for several months. But my business head tells me now not to give the cottage away. They can have it for a peppercorn rent. Plus pay all the outgoings, including Kathleen’s wages.’

‘I was going to suggest something similar,’ he said carefully.

‘I was concerned when you first raised the idea of giving it away, that once you were married or had children you might regret your decision. As your solicitor, and a good friend of your godmother, I felt duty-bound to protect your interests. But it seems you have reached the right decision on your own. So when you are ready I will draw up the appropriate documents. Is there a possibility in the near future of husband and children?’ he asked.

Beth laughed. ‘Well, I am getting married when Harry comes home, and God willing we’ll have children in due course.’

‘I sincerely hope so,’ he said. ‘And congratulations, and please accept my good wishes for a long and happy marriage. May I still send mail to Lamb Lane, or are you moving elsewhere? I always see you in my mind’s eye as the Girl with the Suitcase.’

‘Yes, I’ll be staying here. Thank you too for all the work you’ve done for me and may do now and in the future. I am going to write to Kathleen and put her in the picture.’

As Beth put the receiver back in its place, she suddenly felt lighter at having made the decision about the cottage. Offering it on a peppercorn rent was down to something Myles had said. Until then she’d never heard of such a thing.

Now she had Rose’s room to spring clean.

Rose had said a few months ago, before she even got ill, that when she’d departed, she wanted all her clothes to go to the charity in Jacob’s Wells Road to be either sold at a jumble sale or donated to people in need.

She had been giving things away for the past year, so it wasn’t going to be an onerous job.

At seven in the morning just a few days later, Harry telephoned from the airfield at Hengrove, the same one Myles had arrived at. ‘I’ve begged a lift from a man delivering some engine parts here. He said he’ll take me as far as Canon’s Marsh. Must go now, he’s all packed and waiting.’

Beth felt her heart fluttering with excitement and then put the phone down and ran upstairs to strip off her nightdress and jump into the bath.

It would take him less than fifteen minutes to get from Canon’s Marsh to her.

She barely had time to dry herself and put on a pink summer dress that she’d always received compliments on.

Some rouge on her cheeks, lipstick, a dab of Rose’s Chantilly perfume and a brush of her hair, and she was back downstairs.