The passengers complied, all save Bill who remained kneeling at the feet of his guards, and they allowed the SS colonel to shepherd them into the field away from the road.

Thyrolf said now, 'Once we have the road cleared the column will move on. We will loan you one of our trucks to take you to your rendezvous with the English. So you see, you will not be too, um, inconvenient? Inconvenienced. One moment, please.' He turned to speak to the bus driver.

Mary felt exhausted, drained by it all. Something in her responded, quite illogically, to the charming manner of this SS colonel. 'He's like a hotel manager. Come to apologise because our room isn't ready.'

Hilda was frowning. 'Something's wrong. Why would he tell us his name?'

Mary took a deep breath. 'It's a relief to be away from the stink of burning fuel. Standing here in this long grass, it all seems a bit absurd, doesn't it?'

There was a discreet cough at her shoulder. It was Thyrolf with the bus driver. 'Mrs Wooler? Mrs Mary Wooler?'

'Yes.'

'And you are also a Mrs Wooler? Hilda Wooler?'

'Yes…'

He turned to Mary. 'Mrs Wooler, may I see your passport?' She produced it from her handbag, and he inspected it as gravely as any customs official. He handed the document back. 'Now you, Mrs Hilda Wooler, are a British subject, but you recently married an American?'

'Not just any American,' Mary said. 'My son the American!'

He laughed, a charming sound. 'Congratulations. You have proof of this?'

Hilda produced her marriage certificate from her gas-mask pouch.

'Very good. If you would both come this way.' Holding Mary's arm lightly, he drew them to the road, where a staff car was waiting. Mary followed, unquestioning.

Hilda hung back. 'What are you doing?'

'The arrangements made for American citizens at Hurst Green have been adjusted. It will be more convenient for you to be carried separately. You can go on now; you do not have to wait. The others, the British, will follow soon after.'

'No.' Hilda stepped back into the crowd of passengers. 'I'll stay here. I'm British. I'm a soldier, for God's sake.'

Mary asked, 'Hilda? What's wrong?'

Thyrolf studied Hilda, his eyes soft behind his glasses. 'You are sure?'

'Yes. Mary – you go.' Hilda looked as if she longed to hug Mary, but she still hung back. 'Look, I won't be long after you. Do you know Tunbridge Wells? I'll see you there. There's a parade called the Pantiles – it has a good tea shop.' She laughed, a brittle sound. 'At least it used to be good, before the war. I'll find you there.'

'It's a date.'

Mary let the SS colonel lead her off the field, back to the road, to the staff car. Overwhelmed by his confident manner, she didn't know what else to do. She had to walk past Bill, the kneeling man. His eyes were swollen from the blows he had taken. But when she walked past, he whispered to her, 'Peter's Well.'

'What?'

'This place. It's called Peter's Well. Remember.' A rifle-butt to the back of the head shut him up.

Thyrolf actually helped her into the staff car. She sat beside the driver and settled her rucksack on her lap. Thyrolf gave her a little salute, and then waved the driver to go.

As the car pulled out, Mary looked back. Soldiers were walking from the column now, towards the passengers. She saw Hilda, her blue uniform and red hair unmistakable. She seemed to have gathered the passengers in a group. She was holding somebody's hand, an elderly man. The group was soon out of sight. Mary thought she heard singing, some mournful song, perhaps a hymn.

Mary's thinking was glacial. Only slowly was she starting to realise what was happening here.

The ripple of shots didn't even sound like gunfire. It was a distant, peaceful noise. The rooks that rose up cawing in response were more disturbing. The singing stopped, however. And then there was a series of isolated pops.

Mary turned to her driver. 'That's the clean-up. Right?'

He looked at her nervously.

'No English, huh? You didn't get your timing quite right, did you? If I'd been a bit further away, if I hadn't actually heard the gunfire, I mightn't have put it all together. I'm not as smart as poor Hilda, am I? And I'm not used to this sort of war. Well, don't worry, Fritz, I'm not going to make trouble for you. Just go ahead. I'll hold it together, you'll see.'

And she did. She held it together until they got to Hurst Green, another deserted little village, where, remarkably, a green-painted bus was waiting for her. The driver, a British soldier, actually saluted his German counterpart. The British seemed surprised to see her alone, but Mary just climbed on the bus and snapped, 'Don't talk. Just drive. And when you get me to Tunbridge Wells, find me a fucking phone.'

XXX

25 September

'Morning, ladies.' Unteroffizier Fischer came stomping through the lounge bar, his boots clattering on the pub's straw-strewn stone floor. He yanked open curtains with his gloved hands, pulling one so hard it came away from its hooks. The window was a rectangle of blue-grey. 'It's Wednesday morning, and you're still in England.'

The men under their army blankets stirred, like huge slugs. Their boots and rifles were stacked against the bar walls.

Ernst glanced at the big railway clock on the wall. Five in the morning, English time. He groaned. He heard a distant rumble, like thunder. Chances were it wasn't a storm. He sat up, rubbing his face. 'Today's the day, is it, Unteroffizier? The break-out.'

'That's the idea, Trojan. You pretty boys will have the privilege of following Seventh Panzer out of here, all the way from Uckfield to Guildford.'

'Where on God's earth is Guildford?'

'I don't even know where Uckfield is.'

'I'll tell you where Guildford is, Kieser. It's on OKH Objective One, our first operational objective. And if, when, we reach it today, we'll have achieved in five days what the Fuhrer's plan called for in ten. And then we will be out of this hedgehog country where there's a partisan in every piss-pot, and we will let the Panzers loose and it will be like France all over again.'

'We'll all get medals,' said Kieser.

'I'll pin yours on myself. Personally I would like to see Oxford. Now shift your pretty arses, we form up in half an hour.' He stomped out.

The men stirred, sitting up and pushing back their blankets. The rotting-feet stink and stale farts that had been trapped under the blankets filled the air. Kieser waved a hand. 'By Christ, lads. Fuhrer directive forty-seven. Soldiers of the Twenty-sixth Division shouldn't light a fag in the mornings.'

The men moved slowly. They all knew Fischer was a bit soft, and you could grab a few more minutes' kip with impunity.

Ernst got to his feet. He was in his shorts and vest and socks, and he picked up a kit bag containing his razor and a bit of soap. He stepped over the bodies of the stirring men, making for the door. The floor was sticky with stale beer. This pub, in this place called Uckfield, had been a big disappointment to the men billeted here. Some English bastard had stolen all the spirits and taken an axe to the barrels behind the bar. 'These English partisans fight dirty,' Unteroffizier Fischer had said.

Ernst pushed out of the bar room into fresh, cold air. There was already a queue outside the lavatory, four or five men in their grubby underwear with towels around their necks, rubbing their arms to get warm. The paving stones were slick with dew, and Ernst took off his woollen socks and tucked them into the elastic waist of his pants. Better wet feet than wet socks.

He heard a distant explosion. It came from his right, the south, back towards the coast. When he looked that way there was a fading glow.