‘Oh, no!’ Kate breathed, then, grasping at straws, she added, ‘Maybe he’ll be all right. Perhaps he was in the other end of the pub that wasn’t hit. Maybe he’s just – trapped.’

‘He – he’d have been playing dominoes with Tom Willoughby,’ Beth whispered.

Kate put her arm around Beth but she could think of nothing more to say now for she knew as well as Beth that the men played dominoes in the corner of the main bar; the end of the building where the bomb had fallen. Kate felt sick in the pit of her stomach. Her stepfather, Jonathan, sometimes played with them too.

‘I must go and help,’ she whispered. Beth nodded but remained standing where she was; a still, silent, watchful figure, her arms clasped about her body, hugging the shawl closely around her.

I wish I hadn’t come home, Kate was thinking. I wish I was anywhere but here.

It was like the time the station had been bombed and Edith’s lifeless body had been dragged from the rubble. But this was worse, much worse. This time there were going to be the bodies of people she had known all her life; and among them Robert Eland, the man Danny had called Father all his life.

The fire was out and now they started to move the rubble carefully, praying – but without real hope – that they might find Tom and Robert alive. An air-raid warden and a police constable arrived from Lynthorpe.

‘We saw the planes swooping over here and then the bombs.’

‘Bombs?’ Kate looked up sharply. ‘Was there more than this one?’

‘Oh aye,’ the warden said. ‘One fell into a field not far from Souters’ Farm. It’s not done much damage as the soft ground took the impact and another fell in the lane on the way to town from here – that’s why we’ve been a long time getting here. We had to come right round by the Grange.’

‘You – you haven’t seen my mother and father, have you?’

‘No, love, sorry, I ain’t. They missing?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve only just got home. I’d only just got into the house and was talking to me grandad when the planes came.’

‘The old man all right, is he?’

‘Just!’ Kate replied wryly. They stood looking at the ruins that had been the pub. The warden sighed. ‘I aren’t looking forward to this, lass.’

‘No.’ Kate glanced back over her shoulder and saw that Beth was still standing in the same place, her arms wrapped around herself, just waiting.

At that moment, a figure appeared at the top of the Hump and came plunging down the slope towards them, her hair dishevelled and flying free, her eyes wide with fear, her hand outstretched.

‘Oh, Mam!’ Kate breathed, and ran to meet her.