Leaving her lamp on the desk, she crept down the ward to the foot of his bed.

‘Private Stanning?’ she whispered. ‘Edward?’

There was no reply. In the darkness, she could hear Edward sighing in his sleep.

She carefully unhooked his notes from the foot of his bed and scuttled back to Sister’s desk.

There was the usual sheaf of medical notes, with details of pulse, respiration, temperature and the results of any samples taken and medication given. But underneath these someone had pinned a large buff envelope marked ‘Private’ in bold black ink.

For a moment Grace hesitated. Then, with trembling hands, she carefully unfolded the flap on the envelope and took out the sheets of paper within.

There was Edward Stanning’s army report, several pages detailing incidents of disciplinary matters, all written in his commanding officer’s neat hand. Grace leafed through them, her eyes running down the columns listing various fights, arguments with the other men, and acts of insubordination that had resulted in several field punishments. There was also a note that Edward had been taken away from the front line several months earlier and given a transport job in one of the supply trenches because he was ‘seriously affecting morale’.

What did that mean? Grace wondered.

She set the report aside and turned to Dr Logan’s carefully typed report. It was difficult to read the close script by the light of the dim lamp, but words popped out at her.

Psychopathy. Constitutional flaws in character. Profound deficit in behaviour, lacking proper feelings, showing tendencies towards delinquency, lying and mania …

‘Interesting reading, don’t you think?’

Grace looked up sharply. Edward’s hulking shape loomed over her, his face in shadow.

‘I particularly liked the paragraph where he describes me as “having a deeply disturbed nature, masked by superficial charm”. If anyone has superficial charm, I reckon it’s our Dr Logan. I could have sworn he liked me!’

His harsh laughter echoed around the quiet ward.

Grace rose to her feet. ‘You should be in bed,’ she said, her voice carefully even.

‘And you should mind your own business. Those notes are private, in case you hadn’t noticed?’

‘You’ve obviously read them.’

Edward stepped forward. In the dim light of the desk lamp, his face seemed all jutting angles and deep, shaded hollows. ‘Of course I did. Don’t you think I have the right to know what they’re all saying about me? Especially when what they’re saying is such nonsense.’ He tilted his head to one side. ‘It is nonsense. Don’t you think, Nurse Duffield?’

‘I—’ The rest of her words stuck in her dry throat.

‘Of course you do. You know me, don’t you? Better than Dr Logan, at any rate.’ His mouth curled. ‘I suppose I should thank him, in a way. He probably helped get me out of the army. But all the same, it’s not fair to see lies like that written down. They are lies, Nurse. You know that, don’t you?’

There was a fixed quality to his stare that frightened her. But Grace was determined not to betray her fear as she carefully replaced the report in the envelope.