She propped her bicycle against a tree and sat on the one bench remaining on the boundary, its paint peeling. Leaning back against a barely legible plaque commemorating a member who’d once scored a century, she lit a cigarette and in the silence tried to gather her thoughts. What would be the worst that could happen if she cycled back to Mablethorpe, to the police station on Victoria Road, and told them there was a German spy staying at her house? She’d tell them she’d found him in her cottage when she’d returned home that afternoon, and of how he’d threatened her, but she’d managed to escape. Of course, they might believe her story – who would trust a German spy posing as a Dutchman rather than a respectable English schoolteacher? But then they might delve into her past, which was the last thing she wanted. Maybe he was telling the truth; maybe he would leave the following day after all, or the one after that.

That night he told her his ankle was still stiff but assured her he’d go by the end of the week. He told her that she needed to buy some more beer, and that he preferred meat to vegetables. He didn’t like rabbit, he told her: beef was his favourite meat. As she’d washed up their meal, she noticed her large carving knife was missing from the drawer by the sink. She had very little in the way of jewellery, but that morning she’d discovered that a brooch that had belonged to her mother wasn’t in the metal box in her bedside table.

She would, she resolved, definitely go to the police the next morning.

She never had the chance.

Early the following morning, she was woken by the sound of cars stopping outside her cottage, followed by footsteps on the path. The German hammered on her door and asked what was going on, panic in his voice.

She told him to hide in the hall cupboard as she’d shown him and to remember to cover himself with the coats. By then there was loud knocking on the front door and the German looked terrified – the first time she’d seen him like that since he’d arrived. He pushed past her and opened the back door. As he did so, he found himself face to face with two large policemen.