‘I agree – but then I can’t help wondering what if …?’ Laura said. ‘What if he’s been captured and brainwashed or something, what if he’s been held somewhere against his will all this time? And then I thought – with D-day and us gaining more and more territory in France – whether he might be there, whether circumstances have changed somehow, and he’s finally been able to communicate … Oh, I don’t know. You’re not convinced, I can see it on your face.’

Kitty bit her lip. ‘Maybe, but it’s still such a long shot.’

Laura slumped in her chair, all the fight leaving her. ‘It is, you’re right. It’s probably those beastly drivers ganging up and playing a cruel prank.’

‘They don’t know about Freddy, do they?’ Kitty asked. She thought it highly unlikely that Laura would have made her situation generally known, given how painful her brother’s disappearance was for her.

‘No, I wouldn’t tell anyone I wasn’t close to,’ Laura confirmed. ‘It’s too awful to explain over and over again. Really it’s just you, Marjorie, Peter and now his uncle who know all the details. Naturally I was going to jump to the conclusion it was from Freddy, but I suppose it could be from someone I haven’t thought of, or it’s possible that it was delivered to me by mistake. I have no idea who the man was, and he could have handed it to the wrong person – it could have been meant for someone else entirely.’

‘Yes, that’s the problem,’ Kitty said gently but firmly. ‘There’s just not enough evidence to go on at the moment. You don’t want to be adding two and two and making five.’

‘But how about the paper?’ Laura tried one last shot. ‘Don’t you think it looks a bit French?’

‘Well, it’s a tatty piece of paper that looks as if it’s been scrunched up and unscrunched scores of times,’ Kitty said carefully. ‘But … French paper? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any.’

‘Oh, you know. The lines are a bit closer together. All right, I’ll stop, I can see you don’t believe me.’

‘I’d love to,’ Kitty assured her. ‘There’s nothing I’d love more than for this note to be from your brother, except I can’t honestly say I think it is. If it was, it would be nothing short of miraculous.’ She took a long sip of her lemonade, which was blissfully cool on the hot summer day.