‘What? Oh, Ella, they don’t think that, do they? Don’t they knaw as they were the only ones who kept me going through it all? Through the beatings, the starvation, the months in a dark, hot tin shed that I couldn’t stand up in? Seeing me mates starve to death or die from dysentery. Being subjected to the cruel will of our Japanese captors? All I did was think of them . . . of – of Daisy, me lovely sister; Daisy, and how she’d clip me ear if I were naughty and cuddle me after.’ A huge sob racked Billy. Tears ran down his face. ‘And . . . and Florrie, allus soft with me and trying to reason me out of me moods. I – I want them h – h – here, Ella.’

Ella couldn’t speak. Her throat tightened. She clung onto Billy, trying to help him with her love. He slouched on her and she rocked him as if he were a baby. Finding her voice, she said, ‘They are here, Billy – you only have to talk to them. I do that with my first husband, Paulo, and my first baby, Christophe. I talk to them all the time, and they help me.’

Billy calmed. Then he began to talk again. ‘Rosie . . . Rosie was in me mind all the time. We used to play together, and she’d boss me around. I had to be her baby boy, and she’d mother me and take me for walks. I was only three. I’d forgotten it, but it all came back to me. And how much I loved them all haunted my days and nights and willed me through. But nothing’s the same. Even Roderick. Our Rod – a bloody kid who got on me nerves, but who I longed to be with and knew I loved so much – has changed. He’s almost a man now and all he thinks of is getting a girl into bed.’

Ella laughed. ‘Sorry, but I couldn’t help that. Of course that’s all he thinks about. Be glad for him, Billy. Thank God Roderick didn’t have to go through what we went through. But because of us, he’s been allowed to mature into a normal young man . . . a horny one, I grant you.’

Billy looked shocked for a moment, but he wasn’t anywhere near as shocked as Ella was at herself for saying such a thing. It had just come out! But then there was a sound that she never thought to hear: the sad, lost Billy laughing. He bent over double with it – an infectious laugh that tickled Ella and helped her overcome her embarrassment.

‘Oh, Ella. Where did you learn such things? It sounded so funny, coming from you.’