‘Poor Sam,’ Kath said, as she and Joan walked home together. ‘I had no idea. What do you think he’ll decide?’

Joan said nothing, and when Kath looked up she realised her friend was close to tears.

‘Oh, cripes, I’m sorry I said anything,’ she said, feeling in her pockets for a clean handkerchief.

‘It’s all right,’ Joan sniffed, wiping her eyes. ‘We have to face it one way or another. He feels very strongly that he ought to fight because, as you said, talking was never going to stop Hitler. But they’re such a close family. It would break his heart if they really did carry out their threat to disown him.’

‘And what do you want him to do?’

‘I want . . .’ Joan stopped walking, and her words were swallowed up by another wave of tears. ‘Oh, sorry. I’m such a ninny.’

‘Take your time. I’m here to listen,’ Kath said.

‘It’s just that . . . I’ve never loved anyone but Sam, you know?’

‘I know.’ She put her arm around her friend, waiting for the sobs to subside.

‘Oh Lord, I hate myself for being so selfish, Kath. But what I really hope is that he’ll choose to stay as a baker rather than dying on some blessed battlefield. Is that so wrong?’

‘Of course not,’ Kath reassured her, thinking of Adam. But was it wrong? She couldn’t decide.

They heard the planes just as they reached Joan’s house. There were no sirens, so they assumed they were friendly. But just as they were wishing each other goodnight, a series of enormous explosions seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet and within seconds the sky to the north lit up with a ghastly reddish-yellow glow.

‘Bombs!’ Kath shouted. ‘Bloody hell, it’s the Manor.’

Another huge explosion.

‘Shouldn’t we go to the shelter?’ Joan gasped, as a couple of RAF fighters screamed overhead.

Kath imagined her brother in his cockpit, racing to shoot down the enemy planes. It was unbearable not knowing what was happening. ‘I’m going to the ferry,’ she said impulsively. ‘Will you come with me?’

‘Are you crazy?’ Joan cried, just as her father appeared on the doorstep.

‘Whatever are you doing out here, girls? It’s a raid, for God’s sake! Come to the shelter.’

‘We’re going to see . . .’ Kath said.

‘You’re not going anywhere, miss,’ Joan’s father said. ‘Not you either, young Kathleen.’

For a second she hesitated. ‘I think I’ll get off home, thanks.’

‘Run, then,’ he said.

The streets were filled with pale, fearful faces peering up into the sky, but by now the planes had gone and the night was silent once more. Kath grabbed her bike and cycled as fast as she could down towards the glow lighting the sky to the north.

Drinkers from the Ferry Boat Inn had already gathered to gawp at the conflagration on the other side. Even though she knew no one who worked at the Manor any more, Kath felt a powerful attachment to the place and would have been devastated had it been hit. She could see now that the fires seemed to be well away from the main building, and the masts still seemed to be reaching into the sky. But what about the other buildings, and the people working there? And all the workshops in the stable block, and the vital pieces of equipment Vic and his fellow scientists had worked on so hard? This could be a major disaster.