‘My name?’ Dulcie looked down at the parcel.

‘I don’t know of another Dulcie Moore in this hospital.’ Lottie Jones pressed it into her hand. ‘I suppose he must have meant to give it to you before he left.’

Pain and guilt lanced through Dulcie. ‘What is it?’

‘You’ll have to open it and see, won’t you?’

Lottie craned forward eagerly as Dulcie started to peel away the layers of newspaper to reveal a small leather box.

As soon as she saw it, Dulcie slipped it in her pocket.

‘Don’t you want to know what’s inside?’ Lottie pouted.

‘I already know.’

‘But I want to see …’ Lottie’s voice, shrill with disappointment, followed her all the way down the passageway.

She didn’t open the box until she was safely back in her room at Walford House. That was when she found the note, tucked inside.

I know I said I’d thrown it away, but I thought you might like it. It seems to mean more to you than it ever did to me.

Regards,

Sam Trevelyan

She picked up the Military Medal, feeling the warm weight of it in her hand, and turned it over to read the inscription.

For bravery in the field.

Oh, Sam, she thought, tears pricking her eyes. How she wished now she had been brave enough to deserve it.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

The air raid had stopped by the time Grace reached Bethnal Green Underground station.

Once the crowds and the noise of the big city would have terrified her but now she scarcely noticed them as she descended the steep flight of stone steps, pushing against the tide of people who had sought shelter there. She was too intent on finding Captain Jeffers.

The station platform was still full of people waiting for the next train. Grace pushed her way through them, searching this way and that. Then she saw him at the far end of the platform, sitting alone on a bench. He was a forlorn figure, fair head bowed, hands hanging limply between his knees.

Grace approached him cautiously but he barely seemed to register her presence. As she drew closer, she could hear him humming a tune under his breath.

‘“It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go …”’

He didn’t look up at her as she sat down beside him. Then he said, ‘I’ve spent the past God knows how many months listening to Frost singing that damn tune, and now it’s stuck in my head.’

‘It helps calm him down,’ Grace said.

‘So I understand. Doesn’t seem to be working for me, though.’

Captain Jeffers looked up at her for the first time. Beyond his rueful smile, Grace could see the fear in his pale blue eyes.

‘I suppose you know they’re sending me back?’

‘Nothing’s been decided yet.’

‘Oh, I’ll be going back, Nurse. I’ve seen men in a worse state than me passed fit.’ He turned his head to stare at the railway line a few feet away. ‘How did you know where to find me?’