‘He will,’ he said stubbornly, the tears sliding down his grubby face.

Becky eyed him solemnly. ‘No, Danny. Not ever.’ She reached for his hand, but he snatched it away from her and shuffled further up the bed. ‘Those men who’ve come back were prisoners of war. They’d been captured and put into very remote camps deep in the jungles and no one knew they were there until the Allies liberated them. Your daddy was with his regiment, behind his own lines in the field hospital when the Japanese attacked.’ Her voice broke as the tears welled. ‘There was no mistake, Danny – absolutely none.’

‘You’re only saying that cos you want to kiss Ben,’ he retorted, his small fists balled on his knees, his freckled face distorted with conflicting emotions.

Becky was shocked by his vehemence – and by the fact he must have seen them together despite the care they’d taken to keep their burgeoning romance to themselves. ‘I kiss Ben because he’s a nice man and he—’

‘Jake’s a nice man, but you don’t kiss him,’ he threw back.

‘I don’t like Jake the same way I like Ben,’ she replied softly, desperately trying to think of a way to get through this quagmire of accusations and anguish. ‘And I like Ben very much, Danny. He’s become very special to me.’

‘But you still love Daddy, don’t you?’ he asked plaintively. ‘And if he was here you wouldn’t kiss Ben, would you?’

‘Not if Daddy was here, no,’ she replied. ‘And I will always love him, no matter what. But he’s been dead for nearly three years, Danny, and although I miss him, and wish with all my heart things could be different, I know for certain that he won’t be coming back.’

He curled up on the bed, his scabby knees drawn to his chest, his hair flopping over his tear-streaked face. ‘But he might,’ he muttered. ‘He might just be lost somewhere and trying to get home.’

‘Oh, darling,’ she whispered through her tears as she curled round him and held him close. ‘You’re breaking my heart with all this. Please don’t keep going off trying to find him. He’s not out there – and he never will be.’

Danny didn’t reply as he turned away from her and buried his face in the pillow.

Becky lay beside him, her emotions in turmoil. Her little boy was hurting so badly and there seemed to be nothing she could do to ease his pain. And yet his tears told her that he was beginning to believe the truth – that the hopes he’d clung to so fiercely were slipping from his grasp, and that he was frightened to let them go after so long.