As they tried to get closer to the mole, Tilly heard an officer yell at a soldier trying to jump the queue. ‘Get off the skyline,’ he shouted. ‘The next man up on the mole will be shot.’
Tilly realised the seriousness of the situation if officers were prepared to shoot their own men rather than put everyone else at risk. She struggled to see how this evacuation could possibly happen and, even if it did, how they could all be saved. Would they be among those left behind? There was no way of knowing. What the evidence of her eyes told her was that the men numbered thousands and the boats added up, at this moment in time, to none. She decided to get on and deal with a statistic she could do something about: the number of wounded. Tilly, Fliss and Yvette proceeded to administer morphine to those in dire need around them and then search for water to provide for those who could not walk.
As they waited through the night, the only thing that reassured them was that the German tanks did not attack. But at first light, if they had not left the shores of France by then, they would be taken prisoner by the German army. The night seemed long and Tilly couldn’t sleep. She saw that Jed was moving among the badly wounded, tending to them and offering them the last of his cigarettes, so she went to join him. They did whatthey could for the men and then walked away from the sleeping figures on the ground. Tilly had never been a smoker; when Jed offered her a drag on his, she accepted. It brought her closer to him and, even in these impossible circumstances, she gained comfort from knowing that he was close by. He put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to him. Their lips touched and Tilly knew that this American from another world entirely, stirred something in her that she had never felt before.What a time to fall in love, she told herself.You do pick your moments, Tilly Truscott. Why not a nice young doctor on the Isle of Wight or a GP in rural Hampshire? You could do a midwifery course and spend your days delivering babies for your husband’s practice, she told herself.No, that would be far too sensible. Anyway, put it out of your mind, Tilly. None of us can plan a future, we can only survive today and hope we see tomorrow. Enjoy the moment.
Jed took her hand and looked very seriously into Tilly’s eyes. ‘I can’t deny, Nurse Tilly,’ he said, ‘that I do like kissing you and I would like to do it again and again. Listen, when we get to the other side, don’t just disappear on me, do you hear? I want to make sure we don’t lose touch. When we touch English shores, you will go home to your family, I guess?’
Tilly nodded in reply.
‘And I will be billeted near a hospital so that I can carry on with my work, until they send me back out there again,’ Jed said. ‘We front-line surgeons are not easy to find. They will send me back out for sure. So, give me your address. I stand a better chance of finding you, than you finding me.’
He fished a scrap of paper and a pencil out of his army jacket and wrote down:The School House, Whippingham, Isle of Wight.
‘Listen, it will be a bun fight when those boats arrive,’ said Jed. ‘When it’s our turn to board, stick close to me. We mustmake sure we get on. You don’t want to be taken prisoner, believe me.’
Tilly hoped that they would both get aboard a boat and be taken to safety. She tried to put the hopelessness of their situation out of her mind and hold on to the fragile hope that, eventually, they would meet again. They rested as much as they could for the night, slumped against packs and bags and huddled together for warmth. The sun was just coming up when she was woken by the sounds of men cheering. A flotilla of small boats and a battlecruiser were headed for the shore. She watched, astounded, as the small boats filled with soldiers and left in groups.
‘We all thought that the last of those small boats had come to help us. They’ve been arriving over the last few days and taking as many of us as they could,’ one badly injured man on crutches said. ‘Please God they can take the rest of us.’ He wept, crossing himself. ‘If I have to stay here, I’ll die. The Germans shoot the seriously ill and the disabled.’
Tilly was relieved to see him board the last small boat. The only ship left now was the cruiser. They stood in line, hoping beyond hope. They were finally given the order to board. The mole swelled with bodies, all shuffling as one towards their escape route. Tilly and Fliss were both supporting soldiers with bad injuries. Tilly held the arm of a soldier with a broken leg, a bandaged stomach and a severe eye injury. Progress was difficult and they were getting pushed further and further back. She could see Jed’s back disappearing in front of her and Fliss did not appear to be moving along at the same pace as her. They were both disappearing from view. Tilly and her injured soldier were falling behind. He had a head injury and he’d been blinded by shrapnel, but at least he could walk. Fliss had disappeared into the crowd, but Tilly’s charge couldn’t keep up. He stumbled and fell, and the other soldiers, forcing forwardswith the momentum, trampled right over him. She heard him cry out with a throaty scream, like an animal dying in pain, and knelt down to help him. Try as she might, she couldn’t get him to his feet. She could see that the boat line was being thrown on board and that the able-bodied were scrambling to jump on board before it left.
A soldier grabbed her arm and said, ‘Leave him, love. You’ll have to leave him or you’ll be left behind too. He’s almost done for anyway. Look at him. His guts are hanging out.’
Tilly threw him a look that told exactly what she felt about this response. She held the boy’s hand, for he couldn’t have been more than eighteen. The boy looked up at her and whispered, ‘Don’t leave me.’
Tilly watched as the last men jumped into the boat, some of them landing in the water. ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said.
Chapter 21
Tilly watched as the boat receded into the distance. Somewhere on board, Jed would be searching for her. He’d told her to stick close but, once they had been separated, the crowds made it impossible for her to keep up with him. She just hoped that he would be able to find his way to East Cowes and give the family news of her, although the news that she was stranded in France would not give them much encouragement. Fliss must have got safely on board and she was the one who was left stranded. There was nothing she could do about it. She looked back towards the town, a tangle of broken buildings covered in plumes of smoke. She could hear explosions in the distance and the roar of tanks advancing towards Dunkirk. They couldn’t stay there and just wait to be captured. She leaned over the boy.
‘Come on, you have to get up,’ she said. ‘The Germans will be here any moment. I don’t even know your name. I’m Tilly.’
‘Eric,’ the boy replied.
‘Well, Eric, lean on me and we’ll try to get out of here.’
Progress was going to be slow and she had no idea how they were going to avoid the German patrols. They had nothing to protect themselves and, even if they’d had a gun, Tilly had not been trained in how to use one. Eric had lost his rifle and was in no fit state to use a gun anyway. They walked slowly and painfully off the mole. Tilly scanned the smouldering buildings around her for a place to hide. If they could just get somewhere where they could hide, somewhere where she could safely leave Eric, then she could go in search of water. They at least needed that — food was probably out of the question.
Tilly spotted an open doorway, which led inside a warehouse building. She helped Eric inside and saw that it was stacked with pallets holding bags of flour and canned goods. This might not be a good place to hide out, for once the Germans arrived theywould be looking to boost their own supplies of food for their troops. She decided they should move on. They were just leaving the building when a small boy spotted them and beckoned them to follow him. He had a wild look in his eyes and kept repeating, ‘I help.Par ici.’
They followed the boy down several side streets, passing burnt-out cars and army vehicles, until he stopped outside a cafe. Once inside, the boy led them through to a room at the back, dragged a table to one side and stamped on a trapdoor five times. There was the sound of a bolt being drawn back and the boy stood back while the trapdoor lifted. A dim light shone out of the gloomy hole and the boy indicated that they should climb down. A woman’s face appeared, followed by her body. She was about Tilly’s age and wore her hair tucked under a scarf. She had grubby dungarees on and heavy boots on her feet. A frown creased her forehead when she saw the state that Eric was in and her voice had a sense of urgency.
‘We must help him down,’ she said in broken English that was still a good deal better than Tilly’s French.
Thank goodness for that, Tilly thought,at least we will be able to communicate.
A young man appeared from the dark hole and between them they managed to lower Eric into the cellar. The young woman placed a coin in the small boy’s hand and smiled at him. Tilly navigated the ladder and, once they were all inside, the bolt was drawn across and Tilly heard the table being dragged back into place. She looked around the dimly lit space and, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she took in their hiding place. There were several pallets on the floor serving as sleeping platforms. They were strewn with grubby-looking blankets. They lowered Eric onto one of them and the young woman, seeing the bloodstains on his shirt, unbuttoned it and pulled back the bandage.
She wrinkled her nose at the smell exuding from the wound.
In one corner of the cellar there was a makeshift cooker and a means of making coffee and cooking basic food. There was a table covered in maps and paperwork. Several rucksacks were stacked in one corner. The young woman went to one and took out a bottle of liquid, a roll of clean bandage and some antiseptic cream. She returned to Tilly and gave them to her.
‘Here, you see to him. My name is Celine,’ she said. ‘Give him a little morphine, but this is our last bottle.’
‘I’m Tilly. Am I pleased to see you!’
‘You’re lucky that Robert found you. It won’t be long until the German troops are here. You don’t want to become a prisoner of war. The Germans do not treat women kindly.’
