Ada’s heart gave a skip as she said the word ‘Daddy’ out loud. Would Catherine, born on the same day the city where her father was fighting fell to the enemy, ever meet Jamie? Suddenly afraid, tearful Ada held her baby tighter. Jamie would come back – her entire life, and her daughter’s too, would be halved, devastated and destroyed, without his vibrant, loving presence. A little wail from her daughter clutched in her arms brought Ada’s attention swiftly back to the here and now.

‘Are you hungry, darling?’ she murmured.

Sitting under the old gnarled apple tree, Ada fed the baby until she dozed off, warm, full and contented. Rising slowly so as not to disturb the sleeping infant, Ada laid Catherine in the pram, then, gently bouncing the pram, she sat with the sun on her face until she fell asleep too. When she woke up, ravenously hungry, she was grateful for the basket of food Sister Mary Paul had packed for her: a warm pasty, a slice of fresh bread, even a handful of strawberries fresh from the garden allotment. These, combined with Farmer Arkwright’s delivery of milk, an egg and a tiny pat of butter, were all she needed for a good few days.

When Catherine woke up, Ada popped her in her pram and set off down the lane for a walk. After introducing Catherine to the frisking lambs and bleating sheep in the nearby fields, she walked along the path that edged Cartmel Forest. Stopping to listen to a red-and-white greater spotted woodpecker’s tapping on tree bark competing with a green woodpecker’s incessant cackling call from deep within the forest, Ada’s thoughts, as always on her walks, flew to Jamie.

‘I have to stay strong,’ she said out loud. ‘I mustn’t give in to fear,’ she announced to a robin redbreast who was singing his heart out in a nearby blackberry bush.

Being a mother, albeit a new one, further strengthened Ada’s resolve to stay firm and focused. Catherine needed her now, and Jamie more than ever before. She was glad she had her job to look forward to. She would have less time to mope and worry when she was back in the hustle and bustle of hospital life – not that that ever stopped her worrying about her beloved, but when she was on duty the needs of others completely engulfed her own and she felt like she was doing her bit for the war effort.