She took over holding the blanket above them, thankful that the rain had eased to more of a drizzle. She watched as he lifted his arms, saw the pain in his face and wished she had something to give him. Even just the smallest amount of morphine would have done so much to ease his suffering. His shoulders and chest were muscular, and she realized then how different he was from her Charlie. Where Charlie was white as snow and skinny, Jack was more tanned and had a build that told of physical work perhaps, and he had a sprinkling of dark hair arrowed down his chest. In fact, she wasn’t sure she’d ever even had such an eyeful of Charlie’s body in all the years she’d known him!

Cate shook her thoughts away, not wanting to start dwelling on Charlie as well as worrying about her growing feelings for Jack. Instead she took the shirt from him and used one sleeve to wipe around the wound. It was impossible, though; she couldn’t clear the blood or mud completely, and her fears about infection trebled.

“This is going to hurt a little, but I have to tie it firmly,” she explained, reaching to secure it around his back.

He let out a hiss. “It’s fine. I’ve felt worse.”

Once she was as happy as she could be with it, she leant against him, drawing the blanket around her other shoulder.

“What do we do now?” she asked, as gunfire started to boom even closer to them. She looked at Jack and saw that his eyes were shut, his pain making his face look so strained and tired.

“We wait until nightfall,” he murmured. “Then you go for help.”

Cate reached for his hand, linking their fingers as she closed her eyes. If he even makes it until tonight.

“I’ve never been so hungry in all my life,” she whispered.

“I’ll teach you a little soldier trick,” he said, his eyes opening halfway, lids hooded as he watched her. “Here, pretend this is a can of beans.”

She frowned, but reached out anyway for the imaginary beans. “You actually do this?”

She shouldn’t have asked; it was obvious he wasn’t joking. “Once we found one can of baked beans for our entire unit, and when we shared them out, there were three beans each.”

“You truly had so little food at times?” she asked.

“We used to sit together, delirious with hunger sometimes, and pretend we were eating steak and mashed potato,” he said. “It sounds strange, but it can make a desperate man feel better.”