As we continued to talk we must have been making more noise than we realised as we were soon joined in the kitchen by a procession of sleepy looking children and adults alike. Andy seemed to panic at the thought of providing food without Rachel so I just took over until she surfaced.

Then at only 8:00am there was another knock at the door as Peggy returned to the house, now she would never admit it but she was having a great time with all of us and took every opportunity to come over and see everyone. But this morning she actually had some important news for us.

“I had a call from a friend of mine this morning that may help us with the Whole Holly situation, as soon as I found out I called a friend of mine to see if he could find anything out and he says that there is several complaints against your parent on file at the social services, and that they are close to having Holly taken off them temporarily while they are investigated, this could be the in that we need.”

“Erm you are right Peggy but how the ***** I have been trying to get into those files for months they are meant to be sealed until an investigation has been completed who the ***** got you that info?”

Bette laughed at the shock on Karen’s face, she had not known Peggy long enough to know that she should just expect the unexpected and that to Peggy the impossible was merely a fun challenge on quiet day. After explaining this she kissed me goodbye and set of in a taxi to get James to the airport, unfortunately she still could not drive due to her injury and I saw the driver smirk as she explained that she needed to sit on the rubber ring.

I watched on as my new larger family sat and ate. Angie was stood talking to Rachel and Katie was telling Andy some joke or other that really made no sense but had the black eyed beauty in stitches any way.

After a while I felt a presence at my side and turned to see Libby. She was watching me as I had been watching the others.