‘I wanted to be a vet. I’d been accepted for training but my girlfriend’s parents wanted to return to Kent, where they came from. They wanted Moira to go with them. I could see that she was torn between staying with me or leaving with them. I didn’t want her to have to choose, so I gave up my placement, left Cornwall and followed her to Kent.’
‘Did you lose your training placement?’
‘Yes. I found lodgings in the area, did casual manual jobs during the day and applied for training places in the area at night. But when the war started, I was called up. I went from wanting to save animals to killing people in a matter of weeks.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘For what?’
‘For your dreams being taken from you.’
His eyes narrowed a little as he looked at her. ‘I’m not the only one to have their dreams crushed because of the war.’
Elsa wondered if he was seeing her own torn dreams or blaming her for his. Would she ever come to know him well enough to be able to understand him? She doubted it. Klara tugged at her coat and she translated what he had told her.
‘When were you captured?’
‘Who wants to know? Klara or you?’
‘Me.’
‘In 1940.’
She gasped. ‘I didn’t realize—’
‘You didn’t realize what? That I’d spent the last four and half years doing nothing while others risked their lives?’
‘You sound angry that you were not fighting.’
‘I’m not angry. I feel guilty that I was captured. Guilty that I did not fight. Guilty that I did not escape sooner.’
‘How did you get captured?’
‘I was taking part in the rearguard action near Dunkirk.’
‘I don’t understand. What is rearguard?’
‘Defending our troops from behind as they retreated to Dunkirk.’
‘Then you helped save many lives.’
He fell silent as he considered her words. ‘It didn’t feel like that at the time. After I was captured I was taken to Poland.’ He looked at her quizzically.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s nothing.’
She stepped in his path, forcing him to stop. ‘No, it’s not. What is it?’
‘You won’t believe me if I tell you.’ He stepped around her and continued walking.
‘Tell me,’ she persisted.
‘We were taken to Poland by train. We stopped at a station on the way. There was a woman and a soldier on the platform.’
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing. The train moved off.’
