CHAPTER SIX
BIRMINGHAM, SATURDAY APRIL 29 1944
As the train pulls into the platform at New Street Station, Elsie is feeling slightly apprehensive, perhaps even a trifle nervous. She feels she has known Brian for quite a long time now and there really should be no uncomfortable areas between them. Yet meeting his parents is not something she really wanted to do, not now, not yet. Maybe after the war is over, she thinks. Why did I not demand that rather than let him talk me into doing it now? Too late, though. She gets out of the carriage, clutching her little suitcase, jostled by a soldier who is gripping his kitbag and anxious to get across the platform to his waiting wife. Then she spies Brian, his face smiling and familiar but his clothing a surprise. She realises she has never seen hi
