An hour later, a doctor arrived. He was white-haired and ancient, as though he should be at home smoking his pipe by the fire. But he was kinder than the nurse and made sure Lilly was given some coffee along with half a baguette and a piece of cheese. He told her that if it was in his gift, she would be allowed to stay, for she had been very close to dying out there on the road. ‘You were very fortunate that the farmer found you when he did. Any longer and you would have suffered frostbite and severe exposure. Beyond that we might not have been able to do anything for you.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘Your child? Can you talk to me about it?’

‘She is dead. My father killed her.’

‘I’m sorry. And I am sorry that you cannot stay, but our priority is soldiers coming back injured from the front, you see. We do not have spare beds for those who can walk.’

He found some clothes from a charity box – a skirt, blouse, men’s woollen socks, an overcoat, a scarf and some old shoes. Then he escorted her to the door of the hospital.

‘Where will you go, Lilly?’ he asked.

‘Germany,’ she said.

‘You can’t go there. War is raging.’ He fished in his pocket and gave her a few francs. ‘Go to the Red Cross. They may be able to look after you. God be with you, whatever you have done.’

*

She had decided to live. Her only reason for life was the chance that Julius was still alive, but it was enough. God must have meant her to live, otherwise why would he have sent the farmer to save her from the snow. So perhaps he intended Julius to live too.

Julius had told her that he was from Bavaria, which she understood to be in the far south of Germany, and that his family were wealthy farmers somewhere in the mountains. Beyond that she knew nothing other than that it was a thousand kilometres to the west and south of here. In the early days of their affair, she hadn’t needed to know his life story, or where he came from. She wanted nothing but his body and his company. Stretched out sated in the the great four-poster bed in the chateau requisitioned by the SS, she had touched his brutal scars and knew what devastating injuries he had already survived and it was enough. So perhaps he would survive again, whatever this war might bring. If so, she would find him.

But first she needed to earn enough for food and find a way through the chaos of war.