“All the British soldiers are being evacuated from Dunkirk,” Cate said, her voice so low that Elise had to concentrate hard to hear her. “We were the last remaining hospital, and we had so many patients being brought in. We were the only ones left to help them, but they were doomed anyway, whether we saved them or not.”

“All the British soldiers are leaving?” Elise asked, not sure she’d heard her right. “You’re certain? We’ve lost the war?” Harry had mentioned the evacuation, but she’d found it hard to believe, and she certainly hadn’t comprehended the scale of it.

Cate nodded, rocking as she wound her arms around herself. “Yes, they’re all leaving, if they can make it out of here,” she said. “And the Germans came for us all, they were relentless, but I managed to escape as they took everyone else. All the doctors, the orderlies, and some of the patients.” She let out a shallow sob. “I don’t know if we’ve lost the war completely, but it definitely feels that way.”

“They didn’t kill them?” Adelaide asked, her voice softer than her sister’s, pushing between them. “The doctors and the patients, they didn’t just kill them?”

Elise frowned at her sister, but Addy didn’t seem to notice the reprimand.

“No, they didn’t kill them. They loaded them all in a big lorry and they just disappeared.”

“And who is this Jack to you? A doctor?” Elise asked. “Why is it so imperative that we return for him? Are you sure he’s even alive still?”

Cate was staring into the fire now, arms unwrapped, flexing her fingers as if the feeling were slowly coming back into them.

“Jack, well,” she started, shivering now, “he was a patient of mine. I couldn’t escape without him, and he’s the one who wanted to come here. When I left him, he was still very much alive.”

Elise rocked back on her haunches, studying Cate, deciding to trust her words and believe her story. She had no reason not to, and there was no way she could be faking the pain in her eyes. It was reflected in every part of her, that she’d been through trauma, and protective or not, Elise had a heart. She couldn’t turn her back.

“Where is he? Where did you leave him?” Elise asked.

Cate slowly turned back to her, as if she were coming out of a trance, lost in her memories perhaps. “We traveled on foot from the hospital because he told me we’d find help here, that it was a friendly village,” she said. “We got so close, but then daylight came and we had to hide. I left him in a ditch and then I started to walk, for maybe half an hour, maybe an hour, but—”