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’I don’t know a lot about Noel Coward,’ he adra a synopsis of the play, and it turns out to be about a man and a woman who can’t make up theiras they entered the stalls She began to follow the letters of the alphabet backwards until she reached H When they made their way to the centre of the row, she wondered how Mike had et such superb seats for a sold-out show

Once the lights faded and the curtain rose, he took her hand He only let go when Owen Nares made his entrance, and the audience burst into applause Maisie became entranced by the story, even if it was a little too close for comfort But the spell was broken when the loud whine of a siren drowned out Mr Nares’s words An audible groan went up around the auditoriue to be replaced by the theatre y that would have gladdened the heart of a regi been fa visits fro for their theatre tickets

Mike and Maisie made their way out of the theatre and down the steps to a bleak but faular theatregoers The audience grabbed any place that was available for the unticketed perforreat social equalizer, as Clement Attlee had described life in an air-raid shelter

’Nothis jacket on the stone floor

’When I was young,’ said Maisie, as she sat down on the jacket, ’et me down here, but you’re the first one who’s succeeded’ Mike laughed, as she began to scribble soraently around her shoulder as the ground started to shake with bombs that sounded perilously close ’You’ve never been to A to take her mind off the air raid

’I’ve never been to London,’ admitted Maisie ’In fact, the furthest I’ve ever travelled is to Weston-super-Mare and Oxford, and as both trips turned out to be disastrous, I’d be perhaps better off staying at hohed ’I’d love to show you America,’ he said, ’particularly the south’

’I think we’d have to ask the Ger that,’ said Maisie as the all-clear sounded

A ripple of applause burst out in the shelter, and everyone eed from the unscheduled interval and made their way back into the theatre

Once they’d taken their seats, the theatre e ’The performance will continue with no interval,’ he announced ’But should the Germans decide to pay us another visit, it will have to be cancelled I’ulations,’ he announced A few people laughed

Within ain lost herself in the story, and when the actors finally took their bows, the whole audience rose in appreciation, not only for the performance, but for another small victory over the Luftwaffe, as Mike described it

’Harvey’s or the Pantry?’ asked Mike as he picked up the programme, on which each letter of the play’s title had been crossed out and rewritten below, arranged in alphabetical order, A E E I I L P R S T V V

’The Pantry,’ said Maisie, not wanting to admit that on the one occasion she’d been to Harvey’s with Patrick, she’d spent the entire evening glancing around the tables dreading the thought that Lord Harvey’s daughter Elizabethti the menu, which surprised Maisie, because the choice of dishes was so li place back at caht; not even the oft-repeated gruan to wonder if he wasn’t feeling well

’Is everything all right, Mike?’ she asked

He looked up ’They’re sending me back to the States,’ he said as a waiter appeared by their side and asked if they would like to order Great tiave her a little time to think, and not about what she wanted to eat Once they’d ordered and the waiter had left thened to a desk job in Washington’

Maisie leaned across the table and took his hand

’I pressed them to let me stay for another six monthsso I could be with you, but they turned my request down’

’I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Maisie, ’but - ’