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Vale Road. Since their refusal, Mrs Nesbitt had given Pearl the cold shoulder, even though she’d done everything to be friends.
    ‘The best refusal you ever made in your life, love,’ observed Fitz, pushing his spectacles to the bridge of his long nose. ‘She’d have driven you up the wall.’
    ‘I’m trying me best, anyway.’
    ‘It’s all you can do in this life.’
    When Pearl got in, she felt exhausted. Holding down a job and being married wasn’t like being single. And now she knew how hard her mother had worked to keep everyone happy.
    Jim had wanted her to give up work and become a lady of leisure. But she liked her job in the Borough Surveyor’s department. Mr Hedley, her boss, was very nice and so were all the girls. But after coming back from her wonderful honeymoon, she could see the housework wouldn’t get done by itself.
    Pearl loved her new home. The kitchen, one large living room and two bedrooms were modest, but they were also a safe distance from Villa Road, though she could walk to Roper’s Way in under ten minutes.
    Pearl was eager for Ruby to call but she too was working hard. Brewer’s was now an armaments factory and busy helping the war effort. Ruby was also learning first aid in her spare time, a fact that brought a smile to Pearl’s lips as Ruby didn’t have a strong stomach.
    Pearl lowered her groceries to the kitchen table. Last night she’d hung yellow gingham curtains in the kitchen-cum-scullery, and Jim had painted the brown larder a shade of blue. There was a drop-down work surface on the tall cupboard and underneath, space for crockery. Next to this was a stove. It was old but still worked well. A set of heavy lidless pans stood side by side on the shelves by the door, and four battered ones Gwen had left still hung on the wall. Pearl’s dad and mum had given them their old wireless set and it stood on the shelf beneath.
    Jim had distempered the dark walls a soft green. He’d stuck back the loose flowered tiles around the fireplace, and the wooden mantel shelf had come up shiny with a polish. An old-style wind-up gramophone had been left in the corner, but the needles were worn out. Jim had bought Pearl a very nice beige settee and two armchairs. The suite wasn’t new but it was clean and looked elegant beside the maple bookcase.
    Pearl went to change her clothes. Their bedroom was her favourite place. She shivered in delight as she thought of the wonderful nights she and Jim had cuddled in the big double bed. They had bought it from one of the girls at work who had evacuated. The shiny maple headboard squeaked a little but Jim had managed to oil it.
    Pearl thought how lucky she was as she threw off her shoes. A wonderful husband and beautiful home, all to her taste. Even the dressing table with triple mirror reflected a woman’s touch. A frilled curtain hung round it under the glass-covered top. On its surface were her personal effects: hairbrush and comb, hand mirror and her most prized possessions, three little frosted-pink jars in which to keep her jewellery. Jim had given them to her as a wedding present.
    She hadn’t yet thought about what to put in the small bedroom next door. There was just a camp bed in there and boxes. But in time, it would convert to a small bedroom or nursery.
    Would she get pregnant soon? Would she be able to carry a baby after what had happened to her? Dr Cox had said he couldn’t see why not.
    Pearl sat down on the edge of the bed. Suddenly the memories came flooding into her mind as though a dam had burst. It was just before her seventeenth birthday when she met Ricky at the club. For her it was love at first sight, or so she thought. Because of their age difference he’d persuaded her not to tell anyone they were going out; they were too much in love, he’d insisted, to allow anyone to spoil their romance. At first he’d paid her all the attention she could want. Taken her up West and to Lyons, walked her along the Embankment and