‘Oh, just a fellow I used to know, but we fell out and I haven’t come across him for ages,’ Tess said vaguely. ‘Ah, here’s the hospital. Oh, I am stupid, Jonty. We’ve got all this luggage which we’ll have to drag round the hospital with us! If I’d had a grain of sense, I’d have got the taxi to drop us at the flat and wait whilst we lugged this stuff upstairs and left it in the kitchen. Still, we’re doomed to carry it with us now, so we might as well get going.’

The taxi had drawn up in front of the revolving doors of the hospital and Tess and Jonty got out, collected their baggage and approached the foyer, and as they did so Tess gave a groan of dismay. ‘Look at all those people! It’s visiting time, that’s why it’s so dreadfully busy. Still, we’ll ask at reception for Gran’s ward, and perhaps someone will take us to it. It’s a big hospital and awfully easy to get lost in.’

They reached the reception desk and a stern-looking woman in a white coat surveyed them and their luggage through a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles, but as soon as they gave Gran’s name she seemed to know it, and shook her head. ‘You can go up to the ward, my dear, but I don’t think you’ll be allowed to visit Mrs Williams tonight,’ she said kindly. ‘Indeed, there would be little point in it, as I believe she’s still sedated. She’s in a small room on the end of one of the wards, and is only allowed one visitor at a time.’

Tess felt the blood drain from her face. ‘Is she – is she very ill?’ she faltered. ‘I was staying with friends and received a telegram which just said she’d been injured in a coach accident. My Uncle Albert sent the telegram . . . is he here? In the hospital, I mean. Because if he is I really must see him.’

The lady behind the desk reached for a large book and scanned the names in it, then nodded, albeit a trifle reluctantly. ‘Ye-es, a Mr Albert Payne has spent a great deal of time here today, either in the waiting room or at Mrs Williams’s side,’ she admitted. ‘Are you a relative? I’m afraid if you aren’t—’

‘I’m her granddaughter and her next of kin; there are only the two of us so far as I know. My mother – Mrs Williams’s daughter – died at the start of the war,’ Tess said. ‘Jonty here is an old friend who is staying in Liverpool for a few days. Do you think Gran will be well enough to see him before he has to go back?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ the woman admitted. ‘You’ll have to ask the doctor. But of course your Uncle Albert may have already done so.’

Tess opened her mouth to say that Albert was just an honorary uncle and then closed it again. There was no harm in a little deception if it would help Gran to get better, and she was suddenly sure that Albert’s friendship could only do good, so she said: ‘Then we’d best go along to my gran’s ward and find Uncle Albert at once. Could you direct us, please?’