She reached for Jack’s hand when she got to his bed, winding her fingers tightly through his. “Yes,” she whispered back, not about to hide the truth from him. “They’re coming, and we’re being left behind.”

His face told her everything she needed to know. Jack had seen war; he’d been left bloodied and broken from his time fighting the enemy. He knew better than anyone else what was in store for them.

“You can’t stay,” he said, squeezing her hand so tightly that it hurt. “You need to find a way to go. Cate, you have to go!”

Cate shook her head. “I can’t.” Tears flooded her eyes and she quickly blinked them away, not about to break down in front of him. “I’m staying, and that’s just the way it is.”

Jack had tears in his eyes now too, but he was even faster to blink than she was. “There’s no way they’ll get all those men out. They won’t have enough time. They’ll be slaughtered on the beach.”

A loud rumbling seemed to reverberate through the chateau then, rattling the roof, and Cate pulled her hand away and hurried to the front door to look out. As the other nurses fled to gather their things, most with an embarrassed backward glance to her, and the rest of the orderlies and doctors followed, a convoy of ambulances and lorries rolling in an unexpected group down the road started to pull up, more than she’d ever seen all at once. Dust rose in the air, the light rain not yet enough to dampen the ground, and she held up her hand to stop the grit getting in her eyes.

“Cate, you can’t stay. I won’t let you.” Lilly was suddenly behind her, linking their arms as if to force her to move.

“I’m staying,” she said firmly. “Those orderlies, so many of them have families at home waiting for them, and I’m not going to leave and make one of them have to stay in my place.”

Lilly shook her head, jutting her chin up defiantly. “Then I’m not leaving, either.”

Cate took her in her arms and held her tight. “Yes, you are. Your mother needs to have at least one of you safe, Lil. You need to go home.” She took a deep breath, remembering the way they’d held one another when they’d received the news about Charlie. Missing presumed dead. Which meant the pair of them had never, ever stopped hoping, even if that hope had started to dwindle of late.