‘I’ve been dying to kiss you all afternoon,’ she said, and Marek laughed.

‘Yes – I have the same feeling.’

‘Agnieska seems well – she’s settling in.’

‘Yes, it’s good. She is OK. She feels better.’

‘It must be so nice, having someone from your family with you now.’

Marek smiled. ‘Umm – it’s good.’

‘Marek?’ she said after a moment. ‘Will you tell me? At least some of it? I keep hearing little bits – what you said about your sister’s hair, and what Piotr told us today. I don’t know anything; I don’t even know where those places are, or what happened. Or about your family, and I haven’t known whether I should ask or not. I do want to know – about you, my darling. About all of it. And we shouldn’t keep secrets from one another.’

Marek breathed in, then out, very hard. ‘I know – I should speak about it. But it is easier now we are here, in England, not to think about it. To push it away. I just tell you because it is right that you know me. And I think if I do not talk, it will rot inside me.’

She could feel, by the way he was breathing more deeply, that this was already a struggle. She nodded, waiting, settling her head on his shoulder, one hand on his chest.

‘Just start off,’ she encouraged him. ‘And see how you get on.’

‘Well, from the beginning of things . . .’ He paused. ‘My town, our family town, is not very large – a lot of farmers live there. Maybe you call it a village. It doesn’t matter. It is outside the city of Lwow, to the west. My father was a teacher in the school – of chemistry. My mother also had been a teacher, before she married – of history. But then she was at home with the family. She likes to write stories – stories of the past.

Katie turned to look at him. ‘What were their names?’

‘Names – oh, Tomas, my father. Tomas Wozniak. And my mother, Genowefa Wozniak.’ His voice caught with emotion, saying their names, and he waited a few moments before going on. The names sank into her too. She wanted to ask so many things: What did they look like? Who do you take after – whose blue eyes are those? But she didn’t want to keep interrupting.

‘In the family we were five children, living. One boy they lost, he died before I was born. The eldest was Pawel – he was four years my senior. Then me, Marek. After that, my sister Ewa, two years younger, then Agnieska and finally Dorota – she was just eight years when the war began.’

Katie felt a chill come over her, listening to him. She knew he had had a big family, but hearing their names, they began to come alive. But until now, no mention of them. Where were they – what had happened? She sat very still, not wanting to distract him, holding one of his hands.