Aimee slipped away from the wagon and used General Bruce’s pass to get past the guards at the gate. She asked the way to the command room where phone lines hummed and Morse code keys clattered. She persuaded a signalman to send a message back to Bray to let her mother know she was safe and would be away longer than she planned. And she told her about Father Gaulle’s link with the treacherous Silver Hand.

When the reply came through an hour later Aimee was back on the road and never saw it. The message said, ‘I know you are well. A friend is sending me reports. We have heard about Father Gaulle and are taking action, but beware the man with the silver hand. He is a still a danger. When you get to Hirson find the local priest. He is a friend of the White Lady. He will help. Love Maman.’

On 26th September, at Saint Quentin, the enemy stopped, turned and battled back, just as they had at Peronne. Madame Clare’s cart almost caught up with the fighting. They could smell burning wool on the breeze. That was the scent of the mustard gas.

There was no more sleeping under the stars. The sky over the battlefield, in the evenings before and after dawn, was aflame with exploding shells, star signals and burning fuel dumps, and the villages glowed amber-gold and gave off showers of silver sparks. It was all too beautiful and terrible. They rested in the village of Attilly where Madame Clare found an inn to sleep in.

That night the heavy rains returned. The canvas over the wagon leaked. Marius and Aimee found a barn to shelter in. There were the usual rats but a family of cats kept them away from the sleepers.

The barn was like Aimee’s own in Bray and the cats like the one back in the school. For the first time Aimee felt a sick longing to go back home.

Then, when morning came, Marius found the bombs.

Chapter Seven: ‘Laws are silent in times of war’

Chapter Seven

‘Laws are silent in times of war’

27 September 1918: Attilly

In the early morning light of the barn Aimee woke and saw Marius was already exploring the place. He saw her rub her eyes and sit up on the straw that had made her bed. ‘This was an old ammunition dump used by the German army,’ he said.

‘The German army?’ Aimee said with a frown. ‘Don’t you mean your army?’

‘I suppose I do,’ Marius said. ‘I don’t know what I am any more.’

‘What have you found?’

‘A box of grenades... they explode five seconds after you pull the pin out.’

‘We’ve shared the barn with a box full of bombs?’ Aimee muttered. ‘Maybe I was wrong when I said I’d be safer travelling with you.’