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Helen.’
    ‘You only went to London a month ago.’
    ‘A lot can happen in a month and you were always keen on her.’
    ‘It’s early days,’ Martin mumbled, hoping to discourage further conversation about his relationship with Lily. Even after a month and twelve – not eight – dates, as Brian had hinted, not to mention all the times they had bumped into one another ‘by accident’ that he had engineered, he found it difficult to believe a girl like Lily could actually want to go out with an apprentice mechanic like him. It was simply too good to be true. Not normally superstitious, he was terrified that if he tried to quantify his feelings for her it would somehow jinx his luck and she’d start walking – if not running – away from him.
    ‘Pretty girl and she knows the way to a man’s heart. She cooks like an angel.’ Sam kissed the tips of his fingers in a parody of an Italian chef’s blessing.
    ‘She cooks for you two?’ Brian turned to Sam.
    ‘We’ve been invited to tea a couple of times.’
    ‘By my sister as much as Lily,’ Martin interposed swiftly. ‘I’ll give Jack a hand with the glasses.’ He reached the bar in time to see his brother scowl as Joe Griffiths swept Jack’s hand aside and ostentatiously handed the barmaid a pound note.
    ‘I could stay,’ Lily offered as Helen opened the front door.
    ‘There’s no need. There’ll be bags of time in the morning. Not even I need more than a couple of hours to get ready.’
    ‘I’ll be over before nine to wash and set your hair.’
    ‘Thanks, Judy, see you then.’ Helen closed the door. She was finally alone to do what she’d been dying to do all evening: run down to the basement to unpack Jack’s clothes and look over the flat one last time before she and Jack moved in.
    As she hung Jack’s shirts and trousers next to hers in the wardrobe, and folded his underclothes into the bottom two drawers in the chest she had reserved for his use, she noticed that, although finely repaired by Katie, most of his things were the worse for wear. It was just as well his birthday was coming up so she could replace some of his shirts, socks and underwear.
    When she finished, she stowed Jack’s case in the cupboard under the stairs, opened the doors and switched on all the lamps before viewing each room in turn.
    First, the bedroom; its delicate blue and cream decor glowed softly and seductively in the subdued lighting. It didn’t take much imagination to envisage the scenes that would be played out in the comfort of the double bed Jack couldn’t wait to ‘christen’ – absolute luxury after the narrow confines of her father’s old, overstuffed sofa. The bathroom beyond it with a bath Jack had hinted was big enough to accommodate both of them. The smart, contemporary living room where they’d sit every evening discussing Jack’s day at work and hers with the baby, and listening to the radio. The well-equipped, easy-to-clean kitchen where she’d prepare delicious meals that Jack would praise and there’d be other evenings when they would invite Lily, Katie, Martin and Sam in for supper. So many happy, perfect times to come – then she remembered in the coming months she’d be growing fatter and fatter.
    Would Jack still love her then? He said he couldn’t wait to see her grow big with their child but what if she became repulsive like Mrs Evans in Hanover Street who ‘let herself go’ when she was pregnant with her first and, now she was ‘big in the way’ with her fourth, rarely bothered to put in her false teeth and always wore her hair in curlers and her stockings rolled to her ankles because she was too stout to struggle into her corset?
    Her teeth! Mrs Lannon had warned her that every baby cost a tooth. She tapped hers to make sure none were loose. They felt firm but …
    ‘You down here, love?’
    ‘Yes, Dad.’ She switched off the lights and closed the doors.
    ‘All alone?’ John limped down the stairs.
    ‘The girls