‘And you must be Frank,’ she said, pulling away from the kerb, meeting his eyes in the rear-view mirror. ‘I’ve heard so much about you.’ She smiled wickedly.

Kitty couldn’t keep up the pretence of light-heartedness any longer. ‘But how did you know we were there?’

‘Oh, well.’ Laura swerved neatly around a pothole. ‘What’s the point of being Peter’s girlfriend if I don’t make use of the connections? To hell with lying low. When you didn’t turn up this evening, I thought something must be up, so I rang the admiral and he rang some other people and found you’d been at that extra meeting earlier, and that a V2 had hit there just after it finished. I put two and two together, he lent me the car, and Bob’s your uncle.’

‘I see,’ said Frank, slightly overwhelmed by his first encounter with Laura.

‘Anyway, I’m taking you to his doctor and then back to his flat. You’ll need to rest up.’

‘We’re back on duty tomorrow,’ Kitty said, her voice faint; the movement of the car was jolting her arm, even though Frank was shielding her. ‘We’re going back to Liverpool.’

‘No you’re not,’ said Laura. ‘Not till you’re better. That goes for both of you. Don’t worry, the admiral’s cleared it. You’re to have an extra night or two at the flat, which I should say you’ll find very acceptable, it’s a jolly nice place.’ She grew serious again. ‘Honestly, it’s all right. You did the service a favour by attending the other meeting, and then you got caught up in all this – so this is the least they can do. Peter’s uncle was adamant, and you don’t say no to him when he’s in that kind of mood.’

‘Won’t the doctor mind? It’s the middle of the night,’ Kitty protested.

‘Don’t you worry,’ Laura predicted. ‘He works shifts like all of us. Didn’t you say Frank’s sisters were nurses? Then you’ll know all about it,’ she went on. But silence greeted her remark and, looking in the mirror again, Laura realised her passengers had fallen asleep in each other’s arms, worn out by the strain of the evening, but able to let go now they were finally, against the odds, safe.

Nancy felt numb. She couldn’t even cry. She sat on the early morning bus as the dawn rose, the devastated city centre stark in the pale light. It looked as cold as the chip of ice now buried in her heart.