It was impossible for there to be so much gunfire nearby and not end up with countless casualties as a result, and so Cate started to hum, doing her best to block it all out, to stay focused on what she was there to do. The irregular popping of guns, blasts from bombs and German aircraft sporadically flying and firing overhead had become a background noise that no longer startled her, but today, knowing the Nazis were likely coming as the British troops started to lose ground, she couldn’t help but be frightened. They’d placed a large red cross made of fabric on the grass outside the chateau, and so far the Germans had respected it as they’d avoided being bombed, but it hardly made their makeshift hospital invincible and they all knew it.

“How are you holding up?”

Cate paused at the sound of Lilly’s voice. Her friend’s flushed cheeks and red-rimmed eyes made Cate wonder if she looked the same: equal parts exhausted and terrified of what was to come next. She longed for a good night’s sleep and a bath, anything to quell her nerves and create a sense of normalcy again. But she doubted that was going to happen, despite the elegant rooms upstairs almost begging to be filled. What she wouldn’t give to tiptoe upstairs and fall into one of the beds, or draw herself even a few inches of hot water in the bath.

“I honestly don’t know,” she replied, forgetting her fantasy as quickly as she’d thought it. “One minute I feel oddly calm, and the next I’m a nervous wreck. How about you?”

“I just want to know what’s happening,” Lilly said, her voice low. “Surely they’ll start to evacuate us soon, if it’s really that bad out there? One of the other girls thinks they’ll just leave us behind, but I don’t believe they’d ever do that to us.”

Cate started. Surely they won’t leave us? “I’m sure they’ll get us out of here soon,” she said. “Or maybe they’re still hoping to turn this battle around and that’s why we haven’t received orders?” She shuddered. Now that she thought about it, maybe they would have to stay regardless, to keep tending to those left behind. Perhaps the nurses were simply the last to know?