‘Could you make it sooner?’ Alexander had asked with a smile. The sister had already told him that until Dr Jefferson was satisfied that he had done all that he could, he’d be remaining where he was. Which was all very well – the hospital was an excellent one and the staff were a nice bunch although Sister Shawe was a bit of a dragon – but it was a good two hundred and fifty miles from where he wanted to be. Visitors were discouraged on the ward owing to the fact that the men had just had, or were about to have, major operations, but Rose had made the long journey by train once already despite the frosty disapproval of Sister Shawe, who had only allowed her to stay for ten minutes. Ten minutes for a day’s journey. He had made her promise she wouldn’t come again; he’d be transferred to a hospital in the North soon, he’d assured her, but the ten minutes had done him more good than any of his medication. They had kissed and she’d sat and held his hand and told him about the twins and they’d both cried a little, but seeing her had meant the world even though it had exhausted him and he had more or less slept for the next twenty-four hours.

It was shortly after Rose’s visit that a strange incident occurred. He had been dozing when one of the nurses had dropped a tray of instruments on the tiled floor, the sound deafening in the confined space. And suddenly the ward had vanished and he was back in the trench in France, shells exploding overhead and screams and cries all around. He tried to grip one of the soldiers in the trench but he was a lifeless corpse, horribly burned, but then at his touch the corpse came to life and began to shout, ‘You told us to go over and so we did, we did,’ and then the bottom of the trench opened up and he could see fire below them and he was falling, falling into the flames and sulphur.

‘It’s all right, Major, it’s all right.’ He clawed his way up out of the pit to find he was in the ward again, the curtains closed round his bed, and Sister Shawe stuck a needle into his arm as he tried to tell her about the flames. ‘This happens, Major, it happens and it’s nothing to worry about. Go to sleep and when you wake up you’ll be yourself again.’