‘Yes, I was aware of that,’ she replied, puzzled. ‘It said in the newspapers that they’d arrived safely despite fears of them being attacked either by U-boats or the German army.’

‘Hm, well, Matron informed me that at present a number of field hospitals are also being set up and the army are asking for doctors and nurses to volunteer to work in them. And so … the long and the short of it is, I went and signed up this afternoon. Myself and a number of nurses from the hospital will be taken to a port in the south of England then we’ll be ferried across the Channel escorted by destroyers with all the medical equipment we’ll need.’

The breath caught in Kathy’s throat as she stared at him from frightened eyes.

‘B-but you might be killed!’

He gave a tight little smile. ‘I don’t think we’ll be anywhere near as at risk as the troops who’ll be doing the fighting,’ he assured her. ‘But even if we are, it’s a chance I’m prepared to take. I don’t want to be considered a coward.’

‘But you’re not,’ she said in a choky voice. ‘And you’re needed here! What about all the lives you save at the hospital?’

‘I’m sure the older doctors will be more than capable of stepping in and filling the younger doctors’ shoes while we’re away.’

Kathy’s heart was pounding with fear and emotions she couldn’t recognise. David was nothing more than a friend – that’s all he had ever been, wasn’t it? But she had come to depend on him and to care deeply for him. She hadn’t realised just how much, and the thought of him going to war had her quite upset.

‘And when will you be leaving?’ she forced herself to ask as she began to rub Daisy dry.

‘Within the next two weeks.’

Again, she felt as if all the air had been sucked from her lungs. It was so very soon, she would hardly have time to get used to the idea and he would be gone. A silence settled between them, as David lifted Thomas from the bath and began to dry him, while Kathy put Daisy’s pyjamas on and brushed her hair. Normally this was such a happy time of the day but this evening even the twins seemed to sense that something was amiss, and they were strangely subdued. The adults sat them at the kitchen table when they were done and David carried the bath outside and emptied it, while Kathy gave the children some milk and a slice of bread and jam before carrying them up and tucking them into their cots.