‘Mr Boniface, you must understand, it was the Germans that sank HMHS Britannic! Now this has gone on long enough. My father could have been killed today!’

‘Eye for an eye then, ain’t it! You killed my youngest son. You don’t know what it’s like to lose yer boy. Fifteen ’e was. An’ what about Fairclough’s lad, ’is arm chopped off? What sort of a carpenter will ’e make now? Yer’ve got no idea what it’s like, you in yer posh, White ’Ouse!’

‘What! I’ve got no idea? My brother died fighting for the likes of you! My dearest brother!’ Burning rage hissed through my body. I erupted like a volcano, my words venting inner fury. ‘My most darling sister died far from home, nursing the boys that fought for us. How dare you! Yes, how dare you talk about sacrifice as if you are the only one who’s suffered!’

Engulfed by wrath, I grabbed the scrubbed baker’s paddle left to dry against the wall of the shop, and with all the anger in me, I swung it at Boniface. He stood there sneering, grasping the corners of a bulging flour sack on his back. Little did he know, I’d accumulated considerable strength, mostly in my arms, due to my work in Mudros. The wooden paddle twisted in my hands and the side of the spade chopped his arm and, I suspect, cracked his elbow.

He let out such a holler, dropped the flour, and we all disappeared in a dense white cloud. The Inspector made a grab for me and caught my shoulder. It took all my self-control to resist swinging a punch at the policeman’s chin.

Boniface hollered. ‘She’s busted me elbow, little trollop, I want her arrested! Arrest her!’

‘Oh, so sorry, Mr Boniface,’ I screamed back sarcastically, pushing my face towards his. ‘Perhaps we should call a doctor for you. But wait, of course we can’t. Because you’ve put the only doctor in Dover in the hospital, you stupid, horrible, bad-tempered ogre!’

By then, Inspector Glassman had me so firmly around the waist that my feet were off the floor. ‘Drop the paddle,’ he said sternly.

I did, but Boniface rushed towards me yelling about his elbow, one big hand open and going for my throat. I picked up both feet and pushed him away with all the force I had in my legs. He staggered back, unbalanced, and landed on the cobbles on his backside, banging his elbow again, and roaring with rage.