There was a soft thumping sound, then a cry from the priest and another thump. Silence. She opened her eyes and looked up. The two faces were gone. In their place was a single head, shrouded in a black cloak. A hand reached down and as she climbed up it grasped hers and helped her out. Marius followed and they looked in wonder at the scene.

Silver Hand and Father Gaulle lay stretched out on the grass, crumpled and still. The stranger in the black cloak had a walking cane in his hand. It had a heavy silver handle and he was gripping the cane by the tip. He’d used the handle to club the men to the frosted earth.

The stranger reached up and pushed back his hood. Aimee looked at him and a slow smile spread across her face. ‘You are the last person I expected to see here,’ she said.

9 November 1918: Hirson

‘You followed us all this way?’ Aimee asked the man with the hooded cloak.

‘You mother asked me to,’ Master DuPont said. ‘I lost sight of you from time to time. But every village has a member of the White Lady in it somewhere. They were looking out for you and they always put me back on your trail. And the pilots from the Royal Air Force flew over every day and their observers dropped me notes whenever they saw you... they told me where both you and Grimm were. But I was almost too late getting here,’ he said.

Aimee threw her arms round her old teacher and hugged him. ‘I am so pleased to see you. You saved our lives.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Marius added and shook Master DuPont’s hand. ‘Will you take Aimee home now?’

‘We have two fine horses at the front of the house. We can thank Father Gaulle for them.’

‘What shall we do about Grimm and the priest?’ Aimee asked. ‘Kill them?’

The old teacher shook his head. ‘We are none of us killers,’ he said. ‘We need a day’s start to get Marius across the border and get ourselves on the road home. No, we’ll tie them to the well and tell Madame Clare not to set them free for twenty-four hours.’

‘They’ll freeze,’ Marius said.

‘That would be a shame,’ Aimee said.

The groaning and groggy pair were tied securely with rope from the garden shed. Master DuPont led the way past the pale and frightened Madame Clare. ‘They are spies,’ he told her. ‘And if you set them free before tomorrow morning you will go to prison for a very long time.’