Nanny

Barbara and Sam have been happily married for 18 months, but memories of the past still occasionally disrupt their life together and events in the world around them are about to take a drastic turn.

Barbara is back in harness. She has a brand new baby in her care. But it is the mother and not the baby who gives her most cause for concern. And the apathy of others eventually leaves her no choice but to go into action alone.

The first batch of evacuees arrives in the village and Barbara offers her services. But the billeting officer greets her with something less than enthusiasm. And when Barbara champions the cause of a particular child-open hostilities are not far off.

The Duke goes missing on a flying mission and the repercussions have a surprisingly dramatic effect on Barbara's position with the Somerville family.

Barbara persuades the Duchess that the time has come to do more for the war effort than merely digging for victory and collecting old clothes. She has it in mind to billet some evacuees at Wymans. But even Barbara's enthusiasm is strained when she is confronted with the reality.

Barbara sets out to spend a few days with her father in Kent, but the journey has repercussions ...

Still helping out in the children's ward, Barbara becomes deeply involved with the fate of one of her young charges. And this forces her to reconsider her role at the hospital. For she has to face the fact that the child needs her help-badly.

Romance, greatly intensified by the war, seems everywhere to be in the air. Barbara, isolated at first by thoughts of Sam, can only be an observer. But when the chief opponent to her latest plans for the future suddenly becomes an ally, she finds to her surprise that not even she is entirely immune.

Barbara and her father have completed their purchase of a new house and their plans for a children's home are under way. But the Council's support is not yet definite and the problems to be overcome prove to be more numerous and more distressing than Barbara could have guessed.