‘He’s probably in the pub,’ Tommy predicted, taking a good look at the building. ‘If he is, all the bar windows face to the front or round the other side. We could get into the yard if we kept well back.’

‘But we don’t know he’s in there,’ Nancy pointed out. The enormity of the risk they were about to take suddenly hit her. ‘What if he’s waiting in the yard somewhere?’

Tommy shrugged. ‘We’ll have to chance it,’ he said. ‘We’ll just be as quiet as possible and keep to the shadows where there are any.’ He paused for a few moments. ‘I can’t hear anything from the yard, can you?’

Nancy had a sense that they were stepping off a cliff into the unknown. ‘No. Let’s try it and see. Anything is better than sitting around waiting, not knowing anything.’

Silently they edged along the rest of the wall and through the gate. Staying in the shadow of one of the outbuildings, they approached the car. There was nobody in it and no sign of Alfie or the little boy.

‘If we keep down below the level of the car roof, no one can see us from the upstairs windows,’ Tommy pointed out. All his years of playing hide and seek with Michael and Megan on the farm were coming in useful, he realised. He just had to keep all his senses alert.

‘Tommy.’ Nancy stopped dead, her voice little more than a whisper. ‘Look over there, by the door of that shed. Can you see something?’

Tommy squinted towards where she was pointing. There was something there – something blue. He couldn’t quite tell what it was. They crept closer until the little object came into focus.

‘Tommy.’ Nancy thought her heart would break. ‘It’s Georgie’s slipper.’

In London, Laura decided she had better let Frank and Kitty sleep in. She wrote a swift note saying she would be back later and crept out of the admiral’s flat. She had to get back to her billet for a change of clothes, and then put in an appearance at her work, although they were aware of what had happened last night and had granted her the morning off. She was slightly muzzy with so few hours of sleep, but exhilarated from the thrill of seeing her friend rescued, when for a while she’d feared Kitty had perished in the bomb strike. She was also thrilled that Kitty had finally seen sense about Frank. It had been obvious to Laura that her friend felt strongly about him and, now that she’d seen them together, she was convinced they were meant for each other. Laura had been fond of Elliott, who had been a decent and loving man, and yet she could tell the connection between Kitty and Frank went deeper still. They definitely needed their privacy when they woke up in the admiral’s flat.