That was it? That was the message for them? Cate went to open her mouth, to say something, anything, but it was so dry she couldn’t make a sound. We’re going to be left behind? Surely it can’t be true?

“You’re going to leave nurses here? Women?” one of the doctors cried. “We might be able to survive behind barbed wire until the end of the war, but do you think the Germans are going to play by the rules with our women? It’s barbaric!”

Lilly started to cry again and Cate took her into her arms, holding her and rubbing her back in large circles. He was right; what would become of them if they were taken by the enemy? She swallowed away her own emotion as she listened to the captain continue.

“There’s no need for hysteria. I want you all to remain calm,” he said. “I suggest drawing straws to decide who remains, but there will be no more patients transported for evacuation; the only way they leave is if they can walk themselves. Their fate has been decided, so straws are only needed for medics, orderlies and perhaps a couple of nurses. You should expect at the very least a few hundred patients, so I suggest three or four doctors and at least thirty orderlies.”

“So what you’re saying is that the British army has given up on us?” the same doctor asked. “We’re bloody well stuck here, with only the grace of God to count on?”

Cate could read between the lines—the British army had as good as given up on the war, not just them, if they were going to leave their men behind and admit defeat on French soil. How could this have happened? What if the evacuation wasn’t successful? How many of them would be left behind then?

The captain frowned, but there was something in his eyes, something about the way he went still and stared straight at the doctor who’d asked the question. He’s right. They had given up on them.

“We’ve been outnumbered and outwitted at every turn, and there is no way we can hold the lines,” Captain Beaumont said, rubbing his chin. “The French army will hold them off for as long as they can to enable our evacuation, and the success of this war depends on us getting as many men out as possible. We are facing the biggest evacuation imaginable to get our troops home, and our focus is on getting those men waiting in lines on the beach into vessels.”

“What of the other clearance hospitals?” another doctor asked.