Over the next two weeks Holly slowly grew stronger, physically at least, but mentally she was crippled and her eyes looked haunted. Sleep became something she dreaded, for while she was asleep the nightmares came. Terrible nightmares from which she would wake in a tangle of damp sheets with her heart thudding painfully. Sometimes in the dreams she would see Francine and her family being led outside and shot and at other times she would see a German bending down to set light to Richard’s body. And then there were the bodies of all the young men she had prepared for the morgue.

‘There’s something troubling you. Why don’t you share it with me?’ Ivy pleaded one day. ‘You know what they say, a trouble shared is a trouble halved.’

And so finally, after concealing such dark secrets for so long, Holly broke down and told Ivy everything. About discovering that Richard was in fact her brother and of the missions she had gone on behind enemy lines.

‘I knew you were sweet on that young doctor,’ Ivy said when she had finished. ‘How awful it must have been for you to find out he was yer brother. An’ as for the French family … ’ she shuddered as she thought of their fate. ‘But my Lord, you were brave.’

‘Not really,’ Holly said dully. ‘I’ve always thought it isn’t the ones that come home that are the heroes. It’s the ones who lay down their life fighting for what they believe in.’

‘Like my Marcus you mean?’ Tears welled in Ivy’s eyes but she could also smile as she thought of the happy memories they had made together. ‘I still miss him every single day, yer know. An’ yet now I realise I’d rather have had the short time we had together than a whole lifetime wi’ someone else. It were different for you, o’ course. You had to end it an’ I understand that but what are the chances o’ that happenin’, eh? They must be one in a million. Still, a lovely lookin’ girl like you is bound to meet someone else someday.’

‘I won’t.’ Holly shook her head. ‘I thought for a time that Harry and I might have a future together but as soon as I saw Richard again in France I knew it could never work. My heart will always belong to him. I wish I hadn’t finished with him as I did now, though. I think he hated me after that.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Ivy said kindly. ‘But come on now and eat some o’ this ’ere soup Cook has made you. She’ll be chewin’ me ear off again if I take it down untouched an’ I’ll be in trouble wi’ yer mam an’ all.’

Content that Holly was now definitely showing signs of recovery, Emma had returned to her husband leaving Ivy in charge of her precious girl with strict instructions that she should contact her immediately if there was anything at all she was concerned about.