‘I know very little about you,’ Joe said. ‘Who you are. Where you come from.’

‘There is little to know.’ She trained her eyes on his and pouted her lips. Joe had an urge to kiss her but knew it wasn’t priestly. ‘I am a simple girl from the country. One day I would like to marry.’

He could feel the suspense building within him. ‘And have you met the man yet?’

‘Perhaps,’ she said.

Was she teasing him? She said she didn’t have a sweetheart.

‘And could you share that with me now?’

She smiled, tapped his nose with her forefinger. ‘Perhaps,’ she said. ‘One day.’

Trude turned and trained her glasses on the spinney by the house. ‘Are there woodpeckers, do you think?’

‘I would think so,’ Joe said. ‘The great spotted. But you won’t see them from here. We’d need to get into the trees for that.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘And do they mate for life?’

‘Well, now,’ Joe said, ‘I believe they do. But the male does the hard work of digging out the nest.’

‘Like us.’ Trude laughed. ‘Tell me, Father. Do men and women come to you for help?’

‘I suppose,’ Joe said. ‘It’s all part of the job.’

‘But if they want advice, say, on their marriage, how could you give it to them? Without knowing it yourself?’

‘Well,’ Joe said. ‘You don’t need to touch fire, to know it’s hot.’

‘But do they tell you things?’ Trude said. ‘In the confession.’

‘Oh yes,’ Joe said. ‘They tell me all sorts.’

‘Like what?’

‘Now I can’t tell you that.’

‘But aren’t you ever curious?’ Trude went on.

‘About what?’

Trude looked at him with clear brown eyes. ‘About love.’

‘Oh no,’ he said quickly. ‘We know what the sacrament of marriage entails.’

Trude raised her eyebrow. ‘Really?’

This was not a suitable conversation, not for a priest. Too close to the bone, too familiar. Trude was straightforward, in a modern, German way. Why ask him at all?

‘What about other things?’ she said.

‘Such as?’

‘I don’t know. About the war. Us Germans.’

Joe wasn’t sure how to answer that. Another forthright question. He thought for a moment.

‘People grumble,’ he said. ‘Of course they do. It’s not easy, for anyone.’ Apart from his friend Pierre, but Pierre was a law unto himself.

‘But if there’s anything in particular,’ she said. ‘Let me know. I’ll see what I can do to help.’

‘Well,’ Joe said. ‘You can’t say fairer than that.’