Ellis was frowning at me now. He pulled me to the side of the dance floor.

‘Don’t tell me you’re one of them girls, Sarah. You’ve got more sense than that. Letting them buy you with cheap chocolates and nylons.’

His face was right up against mine and I could smell onions and beer. His hand was tight around my arm and I tried to prise it free.

‘I’m not stupid, Ellis. Don’t be an arse. And let go of my arm, would you?’

As quick as a blink, Dot was beside me, flanked by Roy and what must have been one of his friends.

‘I heard the lady ask you to let go,’ Roy shouted, his face as close to Ellis as Ellis had been to me.

It all happened so fast then, the way Roy’s neck snapped back as Ellis’s fist hit, the dull, sick sound of knuckle and flesh and the shouts of other men as they joined in the tangle. The Yanks were with Roy and the local lads with Ellis, all of them eager for an excuse to thump each other. Dot pulled me clear and I stood gaping as more and more men, sneering with rage, leaped into the mess of limbs. The band started playing a manic tune (I later learned it was ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’—Roy told me it was what they always played when a fight broke out between the Americans and the local boys). In the midst of it all the cops appeared, swinging their batons, and then the green-uniformed military police. Ellis was taken off in the back of a van and we found Roy and his friend sitting outside on the kerb, talking to an MP. Roy caught my eye. There was a trail of blood running from his nostril to the corner of his mouth and a purplish lump on his cheek. When the MP walked off, Dot gave me a little shove in his direction.

‘You alright?’ I kneeled beside him and gingerly touched his cheek above the bruise. ‘That looks like it’s gonna hurt.’

‘Ain’t nothing.’

‘You didn’t have to—’

‘I heard you tell him to let go and it made me see red when he didn’t. He your boyfriend?’

‘No. Someone I knew from a long time ago.’

‘Well, I think he wanted to know you better.’

I pulled a handkerchief out of my purse. ‘Here, you’ve got blood on your face.’

‘Where?’

‘I can do it, just…’ I tried to blot it but it was dry.

He caught hold of my wrist, nearly pulling me off balance. ‘What’re you doing now? You hungry?’

I shrugged.

‘Let’s the four of us go get something to eat. That place was way too packed anyway. No room to swing a cat, much less a gal.’