A Time to Dance

When Lydia's adored mother died tragically, Lydia's grief was compounded by a terrible revelation - the autopsy showed that Hope, the woman who had brought Lydia up, loved her and nurtured her, had never in fact borne a child. Lydia had to know the truth, which must date from the time when, as a young woman, Hope joined the Women's Royal Army Corps and made four lifelong friends. Hope, Nell, Juliet, Ruth and Isa - five very different girls, but between them they made the hardships, the square-bashing and the petty humilations of being officer cadets bearable. Isa was always going to go far in the army - her ambition was to become a general at the very least - while Juliet just wanted to have fun. Ruth wasn't ambitious, and was happy to marry Tim, her soldier boyfriend whose life had now been wrecked by the Gulf War. And Nell - Nell had done well for herself. She'd married Oliver, the most attractive and sought-after of the Sandhurst intake, who was now a general. She had a luxurious home with servants, a chauffeur, a glamorous social life - but the glossy facade of her life hid a very different reality. And one of these women must be Lydia's mother - if Lydia could only unrav