But Holly just turned her face away, she didn’t care any more. A telegram was sent off to her mother who insisted that once she arrived back on British soil she should be returned home and after some consideration the doctor and the sister decided that this might be for the best. She would be shipped back then transported by ambulance to her home when they reached England.

‘Bloody hell, gel. I’m really going to miss you,’ Angela said tearfully on the morning Holly was due to leave.

Holly gave her a weak smile. ‘I’ll … miss you too.’

But then the stretcher-bearers were there and she was whipped into the back of a waiting ambulance. She vaguely wondered if she would ever see Angela again. She hoped so. Sister Flynn came to say goodbye too, but her eyelids were drooping. She was tired all the time now and before the ambulance had even left the hospital she was sleeping.

‘Ah, so you’re back in the land of the living again, are you?’ a soft voice she recognised said as her eyes wearily blinked open. The light hurt and was so bright that she promptly closed them again.

‘I-is that you, Mother?’

‘Yes, my darling, it’s me. You’re at home although you’ve given us all quite a scare.’

‘Home?’ Holly was confused. The last thing she vaguely remembered was saying goodbye to Angela and Sister Flynn but after that everything was a blank. ‘But how?’

‘You’ve been home for almost a week.’ Her mother’s voice was gentle and filled with relief. ‘And for a time there we thought we were going to lose you. You developed pneumonia and it was touch-and-go.’

Holly was confused. How could she have lost all that time? And then the pain of what had happened back in France stabbed at her afresh and there were tears in her eyes again.

‘Oh sweetheart, don’t cry.’ Emma wiped her forehead tenderly with a tepid cloth. ‘With every day that passes you’ll start to feel better now.’

As a thought occurred to Holly she asked, ‘But what are you doing here? You live at Walter’s house now.’

‘Yes, I do and I will again when I know you’re completely better.’ Emma was smoothing the sheets across her, secretly terrified at the amount of weight Holly had lost. ‘You didn’t really think I would trust anyone else to nurse you, did you?’

‘B-but Walter …’

‘He perfectly understands that I would want to be here with you. In fact, he’s been in to see you every single day since you’ve been home and he’s been almost as worried about you as I have.’

Her words reinforced what Holly had thought for some time. Walter was a truly kind and gentle man.

‘I … I think I want to sleep again now …’ Holly said drowsily and her mother was only too happy to let her. Sleep was a great healer and now that Holly’s fever had broken she would hopefully start to recover.