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“Oh, Sylvia, there are so many things I want and need to tell you about,” Izzie started.

“Like Jack?” her sister asked.

“Like Jack,” she said with a firm nod. “But this isn’t the place. Shall we go back to the shop?”

“Let’s.”

They didn’t leave straightaway, because Sylvia insisted on introducing Izzie to Lord and Lady Winman, who greeted Izzie like an old friend.

“I hear that I have you to thank for my wife’s dress,” said Lord Winman with a laugh.

Startled, Izzie glanced at the countess and realized that the light-green-and-white-striped summer dress with the square neck was, in fact, one of her designs.

“I suppose you do,” she said cheerfully.

Sylvia, Willie, Alexandra, Miss Reid, and Izzie finally trooped out of Winman House and onto a bus, with Willie offering to take Alexandra and Miss Reid for a cup of tea at a local tearoom so the sisters could chat.

Izzie kept sneaking glances at Sylvia when her sister wasn’t looking, taking her in. Sylvia seemed happier somehow, laughing more freely and listening to the conversation intently. However, it was the way that Sylvia and Willie always seemed to be searching for the other in the room that really warmed Izzie’s heart.

At the shop door, the rest of the group broke off and Sylvia pulled the key out of her handbag. She held it out. “I thought you might like to open it up yourself.”

“Thank you,” said Izzie. She took the key, the lock tumblers turning over with their familiar, satisfying click. When she pushed the door open, the bell jingled, and she breathed deep.

“It hasn’t changed a bit,” she said.

“Oh, you’ll change your tune soon enough. Shall we go back to the office?” asked Sylvia.

“Let’s,” said Izzie.

She followed her sister through the shop, down the corridor, and to the workroom. On the dress forms, she saw her designs, partially constructed and waiting for Miss Reid to return to work. On the cutting table were her most recent sketches, laid out in neat piles.

Sylvia opened the door to the office and let her inside. Immediately, Izzie’s eyes widened. “It looks like you never left all those years ago.”

Sylvia laughed. “I hope that means you think it’s an improvement.”

“It is,” she said firmly. “You’ve done a wonderful job.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it wonderful,” said Sylvia, dropping into what had been Mum’s chair.

Izzie stared at her sister.

“Oh!” Sylvia said, half rising. “Do you want me to move?”

She shook her head. “I was just thinking how right you look there in her spot.”

“I might look right in the office, but not on the workroom floor. That’s your domain,” said Sylvia, retaking the chair.

Izzie sat down opposite the desk. “Not so long as the WAAF have me.”

“It is as long as you want it,” said her sister firmly. “You are the heart and soul of this shop.”

“Thank you.” She looked down at her hands. “You asked about Jack. Things didn’t work out between us.”

“He didn’t try something, did he?” asked Sylvia with a fierceness that took Izzie by surprise.

“No! Nothing like that. He actually wanted to continue courting me. To see if we wanted to marry.”

“But—”