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you’re sure. I’ll pop in the shop next Saturday. Take care of yourself now.’
    As Tina settled down later that evening with a cup of cocoa, she began to relax a little. She was exhausted, so she allowed her head to loll back on the settee as she closed her eyes. She felt strangely empty as she reflected on her disastrous four year marriage. She didn’t know what the future would hold and this filled her with both fear and excitement. She fumbled in her handbag for a tissue and, frustrated when she couldn’t find one, tipped the contents of the bag out on to the floor. Lying on top of all the clutter was the letter she had found in the pocket of that old suit. Feeling incredibly intrusive, she picked it up and carefully opened the sealed envelope, trying not to damage it in any way. The writing was neat enough but strangely child-like, as though the writer was not used to using a pen. Tina tucked her legs beneath her and began to read:-
     
    180 Gillbent Road
    Manchester
    4th September 1939
    My Darling Christina
    I’m not very good at this sort of thing, as you know, but right now my heart is breaking and this is spurring me on. The way I treated you yesterday was unforgivable but please know that it was just the shock and no reflection of my feelings towards to you. These past few months have been the happiest of my life. I know I’ve never told you this before but I love you Chrissie and if you let me I want to spend every day we have left together proving it to you. Your father tells me you don’t want to see me anymore and I don’t blame you, but it is not just about us any anymore – there is the baby to consider now. I want to be a good father and a good husband. Yes, Chrissie, that is my clumsy way of proposing. Please say you will be my wife so we can raise our child together. The war may separate us physically but our emotional bond will be unbreakable.
    I need you to forgive me Chrissie. I love you. Forever yours, Billy xxx
     
    She finished reading and shivered involuntarily. Although she never used her full name, she had been christened Christina herself and she felt an instant bond with this Chrissie. It was all so sad. Why had Billy not posted his letter? What became of Chrissie and their baby? Maybe she could try to find out who these people were and deliver this letter to its rightful recipient. At the very least it would be a welcome distraction from all her other problems.

Chapter 4
    Billy - Spring 1939
    Billy Stirling had always known he was handsome because his mother never tired of telling him so. Therefore it came as no surprise to anyone that at the age of twenty-one Billy was never short of female attention. His black hair, worn a little too long, was swept back with Brylcreem , his clean-shaven face revealed a dark, almost swarthy, complexion and, amazingly given the number of cigarettes he smoked, his teeth were a brilliant white and perfectly straight. When he laughed, his smile illuminated his face and his cheeks revealed dimples which made him look like an audacious little schoolboy. The deep scar over his left eyebrow only added to his exotic looks and always elicited gasps of sympathy from adoring girls when he told the story of how he had acquired it. Not that he could remember anything about the incident, but his mother had told him the tale many times.
    *
    Alice Stirling loved her son with a fierce intensity and was extremely protective of him. Her husband, Henry, thought she thoroughly spoiled him, and was even a little jealous of the amount of love and attention Alice lavished on Billy. When their first-born son, Edward, died in infancy from consumption, Alice had been inconsolable and blamed herself. Nothing Henry said or did could assure her that she was not to blame. If only he had managed to sound convincing, she might have believed him. All Henry knew was that he had returned at the end of The Great War and his son was dead. He never even got to hold him. Edward was only