CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LONDON, MONDAY JANUARY 14 1946
She walks along the street in her beige winter coat, increasing her pace to ward off the bitter snap of wind. The icy fingers that lick at her face are only countered by moving faster still but there is a limit to the speed at which she can walk. She crosses the road after a horse drawn brewer’s dray and a bus have passed. She enters the milk bar on the other side and orders a cheese sandwich and a banana-flavoured milkshake.
Elsie does not usually wake up late, too late in fact to make herself a sandwich for lunch, but this morning is an exception. Brian left home much earlier than usual to visit a client in Waterloo Road. Grace had been complaining of chest pains and she wouldn’t leave for work until sure that her mother was all righ
