James offered her what little comfort he could and wondered if perhaps one of the doctors had been her lover, but he didn’t ask, and Holly didn’t enlighten him.

Holly managed to snatch a few hours’ sleep that evening from sheer exhaustion but the moment she woke a cold hand clamped itself around her heart as she glanced towards Ben. He had died during the night. She checked his pulse and then gently covered him with a sheet before climbing the stairs and, after listening closely to make sure that the Le’Fetes were alone, she tapped on the trapdoor. It was Francine who opened it. Claudette was standing at the stove stirring a large pan of porridge and Holly quickly told her what had happened.

Claudette crossed herself, then told her daughter. ‘Run and fetch your father. We must get his body away from here as soon as possible, God rest his soul.’

She gently ushered Holly back down into the cellar and hastily closed the trapdoor. Sometime later it opened again and Pierre appeared with a neighbour. They silently descended the stairs and wrapped Ben in the sheet he was covered with before carrying him away.

‘I let him down,’ Holly sobbed when they were gone, as all the heartbreak of losing Richard and then her patient caught up with her. James managed to haul himself out of bed and shakily make his way over to her and she saw that he would be a very nice-looking young man if he wasn’t so skeletal.

‘Don’t you dare say that.’ He put his arm about her and tenderly stroked the tears from her cheeks. ‘I’d have gone the same way if it wasn’t for you. You’ve worked yourself into the ground for both me and Ben but sadly he had gone too far. No one could have saved him even if we could have got him to the hospital.’

They sat like that for some time, each drawing comfort from the other until suddenly the trapdoor flew open again and Pierre appeared, all of a fluster. ‘Come, we must leave straight away,’ he urged. ‘I have the wagon outside and there is no time to lose. The Germans are searching all the houses in the village and they will be here within the hour. I cannot risk you staying.’

‘But James is still very weak …’

‘I shall be fine if you’ll just help me up the stairs,’ he told her bravely as he reached for his shirt. And it was then that Pierre dropped his next bombshell.

‘I shall take James to the hospital. I know which route the Germans are taking so I can avoid them, all being well. But you must walk there with Francine. No one will think anything of two young girls strolling whereas if they find you in my wagon with James you will be killed, as we surely will be.’

‘But I—’

He held up his hand. ‘There is no time to argue. Help me to get him upstairs.’