Someone took her from Arnie and carried her away from the lorry. She was conscious of dead German soldiers as he stepped over them. ‘You’re safe now.’

Safe? Without her darling Paulo? Please don’t let him die.

‘I’m going to untie you. I’ll try not to hurt you. We have a doctor in our camp, he is a freedom-fighter, too. He will help you.’

‘Where are we? We don’t seem to have travelled far.’

‘Just south of Lyon.’

Once free, Sibbie tried to stand and go to Paulo, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. ‘Help me, I must get to Paulo’s side.’

‘Arnie is bringing him out now. Sit still. Our main objective is to get out of here as fast as we can. It’s too dangerous to stay on the road for long.’

Sibbie looked towards where Arnie was carrying Paulo’s limp body and heard Arnie shout, ‘Paulo’s alive! Carry Sibbie, Pierre. We must hurry.’

The journey across fields and rough terrain seemed endless to Sibbie. Along the way, Arnie and Pierre swapped the burden of carrying Sibbie and Paulo with two other members of this faction of the Resistance movement.

Once in the camp of the faction, which she knew to be the communists, Sibbie again asked after Paulo, as he was taken into a different tent to her. Pierre told her to hush, and that the doctor, who was called Michel, was also a surgeon and was doing all he could. As he spoke, Pierre bathed her wounds. His touch was gentle – her pain excruciating. ‘I, too, trained to be a doctor, and at the same hospital as Michel. We now work for the Resistance and carry out many procedures in the special tent where Michel is working on Paulo. He is in the very best of hands.’

At Sibbie wincing as he bathed her hands, Pierre said, ‘How can anyone do this to another human being? But you will heal, I promise you. I have some morphine. I’ll give you that.’

‘No, not yet. I want to be awake, I need to know how Paulo is. I can stand the pain; it is more comfortable now, thank you.’

After a few moments Arnie came and knelt by the pallet bed they had lain Sibbie on. Tears ran down his face. ‘Paulo is very ill. The doctor has said it is touch and go. I think he will benefit from having you by his side. How are you, my dear?’

‘I am in pain, but my heart hurts the worst. Don’t let me lose my Paulo.’