‘Mam – Dad! Where are you?’ she yelled. Now there was silence – a deathly silence. The planes, having wrought their havoc, had gone, streaking away across the North Sea to safety.

She ran to the gate and looked up and down the lane. To her right, beyond the Hump, rose a cloud of dust and smoke.

‘Oh no!’ she cried. ‘Not the cottages – please, not the cottages.’

Then she was running, running like the wind, her heart pounding, desperately afraid of what she would find.

She had arrived at Brumbys’ Farm only half an hour before and hadn’t even seen her mother and stepfather. Only her grandfather had been at home, sitting in the chair by the window in his room, still in his night-shirt.

‘Ya mam wants me to stay in bed. Me chest is bad, but I ’ate lying in bed. Me elbows get sore. ‘Sides, I like to see out the window, across the fields . . .’ His old eyes had watered and she knew he must miss being out in the open air when illness confined him to his room. Then he was smiling at her, but the old eyes were still regarding her shrewdly. ‘This is a surprise. Couldn’t make it for the wedding, I s’pose?’

Kate returned his gaze steadily. Then, finding she was holding her breath, she let it out in a deep sigh. There was no point in even trying to deceive Will Benson. ‘I – I couldn’t face it, Grandad, but I’ve been feeling bad about it ever since.’

‘Aye, well, lass. I can understand, but I can’t excuse ya, ’cos it upset poor Rosie. And Danny.’

‘I – just need a bit of time, Grandad. It was such a shock when he – he came to the camp to tell me. I thought I was over it – beginning to lead my own life, but then when Danny came and said he – he was getting married and – and to Rosie . . .’

The gnarled old hand reached out and covered hers, twisting in her lap. ‘I know, lass, I know,’ he said hoarsely.

‘I – I came home to see his mam and Enid . . .’

It was then they had heard the drone of the aircraft coming nearer and nearer . . .