And that’s how Sybil found herself on a train bound for Lancaster, where she changed trains in order to connect with the local line that dropped her off at Kents Bank. It was twilight by the time she disembarked, and, as she walked along the short station platform built on marshland that edged the Irish Sea, Sybil heard the plaintive call of roosting curlews, who, along with sandpipers and oystercatchers, were settling down for the evening. Following the guard’s instructions, spoken in a thick Lancashire accent that she could barely understand, Sybil crossed the narrow lane outside the station and entered a small ash wood, where she inhaled the pungent sweet smell of bluebells and narcissi. After rapping on Mary Vale’s front door, Sybil was welcomed by a smiley-faced Sister Mary Paul.

‘Good evening to you, please come on in, won’t you?’

Sybil followed the nun into the sitting room, where, even though it was fast going dark, the windows were wide open to allow in the fresh evening air.

‘Can I get you anything, dear?’ Sister Mary Paul enquired. ‘A cup of tea and some nice buttered toast perhaps?’

Suddenly starving, Sybil eagerly accepted the nun’s kind offer, which was delivered to her not by Sister Mary Paul but by a strikingly good-looking nurse with dark-blue eyes.

‘Welcome, we’ve been expecting you,’ she beamed, and set a loaded tea tray on to a side table. ‘I’m Sister Ada, and you must be Sybil. How was your journey?’

In between mouthfuls of hot strong tea and nibbles of hot toast, Sybil responded to the nurse, finding that she’d taken an immediate liking to her. ‘Grim, but I’m here now, for which I am truly grateful. The journey out of London itself seemed to take hours, stopping and starting, shunting back and forth past cities and towns almost razed to the ground by bombing raids. If that wasn’t bad enough, the carriages and corridors were full of weary troops, half of them sleeping on the carriage floors.’

Seeing Sybil’s pale face and tired eyes, Ada suggested she showed her to her room.

‘Thank you,’ Sybil quickly agreed. ‘I’m exhausted.’

Ada carried the newcomer’s case and led her up the dark, winding, mahogany staircase to the first floor, where, Sybil was relieved to discover, she had her own single room equipped with a sink.

‘You’ll share a bathroom with the other girls on the first floor,’ Ada explained.

Though dismayed at the prospect Sybil answered diplomatically, ‘Well, at least I have my own room.’