‘One man was panicking in the water. A body floated past him – it had been burnt, I think – and this man just couldn’t bear it. He started screaming and trying to swim out towards us. He dragged a man under and they both nearly drowned.’

‘What happened?’

‘Another soldier grabbed him and put a gun to his head. By the time he got on to the lifeboat he had gone completely quiet. He just sat there – rigid, like a statue. Even when a Spitfire flew low overhead, he didn’t look up. When we got to the Margate Queen, he shook Pa’s hand, but he couldn’t say anything.’

‘What did Pa say?’

Mags’s voice faded to a hoarse whisper. ‘He said, “Thank you, sir. And good luck.” After the man had gone, Pa said to me, “We all have moments we live to regret. We have no idea what fear will do to us until it takes hold.”’

Mags was quiet for a moment. Her breathing was all jumpy. Some of her tea slopped over her fingers and Kipper gently took the cup from her.

‘Mags,’ I said very softly. ‘What happened to Pa?’

She stared at the floor. Her dark hair fell forward over her face.

‘We were on our way home. We’d done our last run out to a destroyer and Pa said we should head back. To be honest, I think he was worried about you being here all by yourself.’

I almost laughed. Pa was there, surrounded by bombs and dogfights and machine guns and dead bodies, and he was worried about me.

‘Then we hit a mine. The bow of the lifeboat exploded and we were both thrown into the water. It’s just a terrible blur now – I-I don’t really know what happened. I remember being underwater and not knowing which way was up. I took a lungful of water and I just thought, This is the end, then.’

‘But it wasn’t.’

‘No. Something hit my arm and I lunged at it. I clung on. It was a boathook. I was hauled along and then a hand grabbed mine and pulled me up out of the water. It was Kipper.’

I looked at Kipper, and thought how odd it was to have him here with us in our kitchen. How different he seemed now from the boy I thought I knew.

‘I heard the explosion,’ Kipper said. ‘Saw it too. I pulled Mags out and we looked for your dad.’