It’s because I’m looking after him, tending to him so often, she told herself. I need more to eat and I need to sleep properly. Charlie will come back to me then.

As if to placate the voice in her head, she lifted her legs up on to the bed and lay her head down on the pillow. She’d been reluctant to sleep again because she didn’t want to leave Jack, and she reasoned with herself that there would be no hardship in sharing the bed with him. They were both fully clothed, she didn’t need to pull the blanket on to herself, and the door was open. Not that anyone downstairs probably could have cared less what she did with Jack in the privacy of a room, but still, it meant something to her.

She lay on her back for a moment before wrestling with the notion of how cold she was, and how warm Jack would be to curl up beside. Cate moved slowly, inching across the bed until she was touching him, and finally placing her arm slightly across his chest, her body curled into his like a spoon nestling against him. And she hadn’t been wrong; the heat from him warmed her almost instantly, and even though he made her heart race for another reason entirely, it did stop the panicked thud of fear inside of her.

“Cate?”

She wriggled back, embarrassed at hearing Jack say her name when she was so close to him. His voice was gravelly, dry from not being used.

“You’re awake,” she said, struggling upright so she could peer down at him.

“I feel like death,” he groaned, trying to sit up and then falling straight back down again. “How long have we been here?”

“Two days,” she said. “But after everything your body went through, you ended up sleeping for most of it.”

His hand lifted slowly and landed on his abdomen. “You stitched me up again?” he asked. “I remember something about you bent over me and a man, a soldier, holding my shoulders to keep me still?” His eyes squinted, his face screwed up with the effort of trying to piece everything together.

Cate rose and went to get the glass of water she’d brought up earlier for him in case he woke. “Harry,” she told him. “The soldier’s name is Harry, and he’s downstairs right now. There’s three of us Brits hiding here.”

She could see that Jack was starting to remember when he pushed up on to his elbows, his eyes clearer as she held the glass for him and he took a few gulps.

“Are we safe?” he asked.

Cate shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. But there’s nowhere safer we could be.”