After hearing the prime minister’s promise that Britain and Germany would never go to war again, Milly and Lena watched with mixed feelings as Neville Chamberlain stood waving on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth beside him. Although the crowds below were happy and cheerful, somehow it didn’t feel like the end of the matter.

Even in sleepy old Worthing there was a lot of preparation going on. The bomb shelters in Steyne Gardens were finished and Worthing museum was relocating many of the town’s artefacts. Principle Salt from the art school had asked Milly if she would accompany Miss Gerard from the library while she hid a couple of the school’s most valuable pictures. The hiding place turned out to be on the Gallops where a tunnel had been created in the rock face on the hill. They had carefully stored several items belonging to the art school along with the cases already there and Milly had taken a picture of Miss Gerard outside the entrance before the workmen sealed it up. That photograph would be locked in the library vault for future reference in case something happened to them.

As she’d turned to leave, Milly had spotted her brother-in-law striding along the Gallops. She was puzzled as to why he was there, but she’d said nothing. He was a fit man and used to bicycling or walking across the Downs so perhaps it was just a coincidence.

Now, when the advertisements came on, Milly was wondering what would become of them all. She’d heard the stories of the privations and hardships of the last war. So many men had been called up that the women had had to step up to keep the country running. They’d become railway porters and delivery drivers. They’d gone to France to nurse the wounded. Would it come to the same thing if war came again? Supposing some of her friends got killed? She closed her eyes and forced herself to think of something else, but now her mind was in overdrive. Where would she go? Would she and Lena be able to do something together? And if they did, who would look out for her mother? Despite their difficult relationship, she still cared about her.

Milly leaned back in her seat. It had felt so good when she’d paid her mother’s fine before Pearl and Freddie got back to the courtroom. One little thing she’d done to show there were no hard feelings on her part. Of course, it would have been nice to tell her mother and have her say thank you for all that she’d done, but something told her that – even if Agatha knew – a grateful response from her would be highly unlikely.

The film they had chosen to watch didn’t lighten their mood. The Lady Vanishes, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, was set on a train journeying through the continent. It was a thriller about a rich girl who realises an elderly woman is missing from the train. This story of spies, false imprisonment and secret codes only heightened their nervousness about the world around them.

After the film, they stopped for a cup of tea in the café next door to the cinema before making their separate ways home.

‘I haven’t told you,’ Milly began, ‘but I have a date.’

Lena’s eyes grew wide. ‘A date? With who? Do I know him?’

Milly shook her head. ‘We met last year, before Pearl got married.’ She went on to tell Lena about Lady Verity’s party and meeting Eustace in the garden, and that he happened to be in the Swan hotel for an auction at the same time Milly had been there.

‘Eustace . . .’ Lena said cautiously.

‘I know, I know,’ said Milly. ‘The poor man told me his friends call him Useless Eustace. I think there should be a law against parents calling their children dreadful names.’

Lena laughed. ‘So what’s he like?’

‘To be honest,’ Milly confessed, ‘I hardly remembered him. But he seems very nice, kind, considerate, friendly.’ She held back from telling her sister that she was only really going because she now knew there was no chance with Seebold.

‘You’ve made him sound like Prince Charming himself,’ Lena giggled. ‘When do you meet him?’

‘Next Wednesday,’ said Milly.

‘Well, have a wonderful time,’ said Lena. ‘And let me know how you get on.’

‘I will,’ she promised.

They lapsed into talking about Lena’s plans for the future. She was still at the Wonderland but – with winter coming on – she needed to think of something else. Nobody would be wanting Shetland pony rides in December.

‘Will you go back to Rainbow George?’ Milly asked.

Lena shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to do. I always feel caught up between two different worlds, you see. I love the fairgrounds and entertaining people, but with no real specialist talent, it’s hard.’

‘You still have the cottage,’ Milly reminded her.

‘I was thinking of moving my caravan from East Worthing down there,’ said Lena. ‘Do you think they would mind?’

‘It’s your property,’ Milly said stoutly. ‘I think it sounds like a good idea. You’d be closer to Nan as well.’

‘You see, I’ve been offered a place for the ponies at a stable on the Horsham Road,’ Lena went on. ‘It’s only a stone’s throw from the cottage and, actually, if I lived in the cottage, I could become a pigeoneer.’

Milly’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What on earth is that?’

‘Someone who trains homing pigeons,’ said Lena. ‘You know, looks after them, houses them, feeds them, makes sure they’re fit and healthy, then sends them away and waits for them to come back home.’

Milly frowned. ‘As a sort of hobby, do you mean?’

‘Yes and no,’ said Lena. ‘People do race them against one another but if we do go to war, carrier pigeons could be very useful. They used them quite a lot in the Great War – you know, sending messages from the front and all that. I thought that if I was accepted by the War Office, or whoever decides these things, it would be my way of doing my bit.’

‘Then go for it,’ Milly said stoutly.

Back home and in her own bed, Milly pondered her own future, as her conversation with Lena had given her much food for thought. Quite simply, Milly empathised with her half-sister’s feelings. She enjoyed doing the windows of the big stores, but it was a job with no real purpose. She longed to get her teeth into something which really mattered.

‘Do you think there will be a war?’ she’d asked as they parted.

Lena had shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ she’d said, adding darkly, ‘but it doesn’t look good, does it?’

* * *

Milly and Eustace ended up meeting the following week. He’d cancelled on her twice, as his other commitments seemed to get in the way.

He picked her up from Hanningtons in Brighton where she had been giving a ‘class’ to some new window-dressers who were just about to start in the shop. Once again, she had excelled herself, this time with an autumnal scene. A mannequin dressed as a farmer was raking up leaves, while a display of autumn fruits and produce from Hanningtons’ grocery shop was arranged on a barrow behind him. As soon as the window had been revealed, crowds had gathered outside the shop to admire it, and the footfall inside the store had rocketed.

Eustace was parked outside when she emerged. He hailed her and leapt out of the driver’s seat to hold the passenger door open for her. As they greeted each other, he raised his hat.

Once in the car, she was able to look at him more closely. At Lady Verity’s party, Milly remembered being struck by his gingery complexion and the downy fuzz on his face, so had been under the impression that he was not much older than she was. Sitting next to him in broad daylight, she now she realised how wrong she had been. He looked about twenty-three or maybe a little older and, far from having teenage fluff on his face, he sported a close beard.

‘It really is lovely to see you again,’ he said as he threw the hat on the back seat and started the engine. His light brown eyes twinkled as he gave her a winning smile.

Milly blushed. ‘And you too.’

They both laughed and exchanged the usual pleasantries as he motored out of town. He took her for a walk along the River Adur near Shoreham. The weather was getting cooler and Milly was glad of her coat and gloves. She was also glad that she had treated herself to a new pair of pixie boots with fur around the ankle.

Eustace looked really handsome in a naval-style duffel coat with a tartan lining. He walked with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

They began by asking each other about their lives. She discovered that his father was ‘something in the Foreign Office’, and it seemed that his mother centred her life around the home and the local golf club. ‘Right now they’re skiing in the Austrian Tyrol at a place called St Anton to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary,’ he said.

Milly was slightly puzzled. She thought he had told her his mother was dead, but perhaps she’d got it wrong.

‘It was my mother’s lifelong dream to go, after she saw the German film The White Ecstasy,’ he continued. ‘They’re having the time of their lives, but I don’t mind telling you, I shall be glad when they’re safely back home.’

Milly could understand the sentiment. Things on the world’s stage were gathering pace. Although the ‘peace for our time’ Munich Agreement was supposed to bring an increasing sense of calm, it seemed that every government in Europe was saying one thing but preparing for quite another.

Eustace was interested in what she had been doing and Milly felt slightly awkward telling him that most of her time of late had been taken up by the events in the courtroom.

As they came towards the river itself, Milly brought up the subject which had been puzzling her for some time. ‘Are there a lot of bird-watchers around here?’

‘The odd one or two, I suppose,’ he said, adding with a chuckle, ‘although I haven’t come across very many. Why?’

‘It’s just that when Seebold, Lena and I were collecting his friend’s dog up there on the hill, I saw a man hiding in the undergrowth.’