‘Exactly,’ he said confidently, not allowing any shadow of doubt to colour his voice. ‘They’ll be here in no time. All we have to do is wait. Pretend I can hold your hand. Imagine I’m doing that, and giving it a good squeeze. That’s what I’ll do when we get out of here. I’ll give you a big hug; I’m never going to stop hugging you, protecting you.’

‘I’ll hold you to that. I won’t care about my arm, as long as we get out of here.’

‘We will, Kitty. We’re going to be safe any moment now.’ But she could hear his voice was fading once more. He must be as thirsty and hungry as she was. They hadn’t eaten since the biscuits at the meeting. At least they’d had those. Her mind began to drift again and she could feel her eyelids drooping, the welcome muzziness of sleep – or was it just that she had no strength left? The lack of air was playing with her senses. Time was stretching away from her. Then Frank’s voice came again.

‘Kitty. Can you see it?’

She came out of her stupor, realising his voice was sharp now, stronger once more.

‘See what? I can’t … oh, perhaps, though. There’s something on my left-hand side, a patch of … I don’t know, it’s not quite as dark.’

‘I’m sure it’s a beam of light. It is, Kitty. I’m going to call out. Over here!’ he shouted, his voice croaky but full of force.

‘Hello! Over here!’ Kitty echoed as loudly as she could, tasting dust and dirt as she did so. Now she could make out the light more clearly. It moved around. It must be the beam of a torch.

‘Hello there, miss,’ came a man’s voice. ‘Shout out again so I can tell where you are.’

Kitty could have cried with relief but instead she called to him, ‘We’re over here. There’s two of us – or at least that’s all we know of. There could be more.’

‘Steady on, then. We’ll be with you in a jiffy.’ The man sounded closer, and then there were muffled noises, perhaps as he turned and spoke to the other rescuers. ‘That’s it, that’s it – almost there.’ More stones fell nearby and then, with a grunt of effort, the man and his team rolled back a huge pillar. As the torchlight broke through their prison, Kitty could pick out the markings of the stone, and then the ARP uniforms of the men.

‘Hello, miss,’ said the first man. ‘You’re safe now. We’ll get you out in no time at all.’

CHAPTER THIRTY