Cate’s heartbeat started to settle, and she was grateful that Lilly kept her hands on her shoulders a while longer, the touch alone helping her to calm.

“And Jack?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager for information, despite the dull ache inside her at just thinking about what might have happened to him.

“Jack’s fine too,” Lilly said. “He’s had surgery already, and he’s expected to make a full recovery.”

Cate shut her eyes again, breathing deeply as she thought about him. It was a miracle he’d survived after everything he’d endured, and she only hoped that this time, he’d be able to rest and recuperate.

“How did you make it, Lilly? How did you end up here?”

Lilly sighed and sat on the bed, and when Cate shuffled over, Lilly lay down beside her, their heads together on the pillow as Cate reached for her hand.

“I was going to say that it’s a long story, but it appears we have plenty of time.”

They both laughed, and Cate relaxed against her friend, so relieved to be with her, to have someone to care for her after everything she’d been through.

“The ambulance you saw me in was one I took from the beach when we all arrived,” Lilly said. “It had just been left, abandoned, and when I saw the keys still in it, I knew I had to go back to get the patients who couldn’t walk all that way. I couldn’t just leave them behind.”

“It seems like a lifetime ago, that day, doesn’t it?” Cate mused.

“It certainly does.”

“And what happened when you left? Did you get all those patients to the beach?”

“I did. But I have a scar to show for it.” Lilly lifted her leg and pulled up her skirt, exposing a rippling red mark that ran down her thigh. “I saw a man, a British soldier, on his own, collapsed on the road. I knew I had space for one more since Jack hadn’t made it onboard, so I stopped to help him in, and when I went to drive away, I was stopped by SS officers. There was one standing at my door just as I was about to close it.”

Cate gulped, squeezing her friend’s hand even tighter. “And then?”

Lilly sighed. “He was so close I could smell the onions on his breath, and he yelled ‘Surrender’ at me,” she said. “And when he ordered his men to leave my patients on the road, I slapped him, clean across the cheek.”

“Oh Lilly, you didn’t!”

“Oh, I did,” she said, laughing. “But the bastard pulled out his dagger so fast and stabbed me straight in the thigh, so I screamed and slammed my foot on the accelerator, flying past the other German soldiers and not stopping until I reached the beach!”