He sniffed at the can. ‘Petrol, I think. Could make it easier to trace, seeing as it’s being rationed so strictly now.’

The captain nodded in agreement. ‘It’s what we thought, then. And I’ve just been told it was being used as a base for the Local Defence Volunteers. We need to inform the police.’

The Local Defence Volunteers? Pa had just signed up. There had been an announcement on the wireless – all able-bodied men aged seventeen to sixty-five who were too young or too old to fight, or were in the reserved professions, were asked to volunteer for the LDV to help defend the country in the event of an invasion. Just this week the village hall had been agreed upon as the base for meeting and training, and the Scout hut had been secured for storing equipment. And then, only a few days later, both buildings had been set on fire.

Mags and I left the crowd at the village hall and walked towards the shops. Mutti had said she would meet us outside the butchers.

After we had been walking quietly for a moment, Mags said, ‘So it was deliberate, then? Someone set the village hall and the Scout hut on fire deliberately? With petrol?’

‘It looks like that,’ I said.

‘But why? And why target the LDV? Pa said they haven’t even got properly started yet. He was getting all cross about it – do you remember?’

I did. Pa had been talking to Mutti last night. He had said the volunteers were so frustrated with the lack of proper equipment that a plan was being cooked up by the local farmers to arm the LDV with their own collection of rabbit rifles and shotguns. They were taking matters into their own hands.

‘Maybe it’s got nothing to do with the LDV or the war. Maybe it was a personal vendetta.’ I said. ‘Or an act of passion.’

Mags rolled her eyes at me. ‘An act of passion, Pet? In Stonegate Scout hut? I very much doubt it.’

Then we saw Mutti waiting there for us outside the butcher’s shop. She was looking at Magda with a peculiar, worried expression on her face. When we got closer, she shook the expression away and handed my sister the ration book.

‘See if you can get some bacon, please, Mags,’ Mutti said, with a quick smile. ‘Pet, let’s go and see Mrs Rossi at the bakery.’

‘Flames as high as the church tower,’ one woman said. ‘We thought it was the end of days!’ There was quite a queue at the bakery, and everyone was talking about the fire.

‘Was it children, do you think?’ said another. ‘I heard some of the lads got their hands on a recipe for a sort of homemade bomb that you can make in lemonade bottles. If Jerry shows up, they’re planning on chucking them at him!’