after wiping down with cold water and a grubby cloth. While Justin took a more thorough wash, Rosie sprinkled Edith with cool water, took the farm boots off her feet and unbuttoned the back of her dress.
Dr Blanc arrived as Justin came back inside dressed in his good clothes. These were free of coal dust, but still appeared to have been worn through a great deal of muddy play. The doctor was a barrel of a woman, with a huge chest and bright red nose. She grunted when she saw Justin in perfect health, but forgot the deception the instant she saw Edith.
‘When did she become feverish?’ Dr Blanc asked, as she pulled down Edith’s dress.
‘Yesterday afternoon,’ Rosie said.
‘Christ, did they use her as a punching bag?’ Dr Blanc said furiously. ‘Someone did a half decent job patching her up. Was that you?’
Rosie nodded and half smiled. ‘I did a six-week nursing course.’
‘Good, you can give me a hand. I need her lying face down on the floor. She’s running a very high temperature, but she’s not sweating which means she’s critically dehydrated. I need clean water, salt and sugar if you have any.’
Justin ushered Belle out of the room as Rosie swung Edith from chair to floor.
‘I want to see,’ Belle moaned.
Dr Blanc made heavy work out of kneeling down. As she pulled a bottle and length of rubber tubing from her leather bag, Justin fetched salt and water, while Rosie took the two sugar lumps from her emergency ration tin.
While Rosie shook the solution in the bottle, Dr Blanc pushed the rubber tube up Edith’s bum.
‘It’s not pretty, but it’s the quickest way to get water and minerals back in her system.’
Justin backed away looking queasy, while his three sisters intermittently peeked around the doorway. When the rehydration procedure was complete, Dr Blanc began washing Edith’s body with cool water.
‘Is she going to be OK?’ Rosie asked warily.
‘Did she have any health problems before this happened?’ the doctor asked.
‘None that I know of,’ Rosie said.
‘We’ll keep her cool and hydrated,’ Dr Blanc said. ‘She’s young and healthy, but there’s nothing I can do about the infection. It’s a matter of keeping her comfortable and waiting to see if she has the strength to fight it off.’
*
Dr Blanc hurried off once she’d done all she could to help Edith. Rosie couldn’t travel outside in combat gear, so she negotiated the purchase of a shabby dress belonging to Justin’s mum, for a price that would easily buy two replacements on the black market.
After she’d shared Justin’s breakfast of egg, fake coffee and coarse black bread, a horse and buggy organised by Dr Blanc arrived. Joseph the driver was the doctor’s handsome son and he carried Edith outside and laid her out over straw in the back of the buggy.
Rosie felt uneasy putting so much trust in strangers, but Dr Blanc seemed reliable, and with Edith fighting for life there was little choice.
‘Where are we heading?’ Rosie asked, as the horse moved down an unfinished path between tightly spaced cottages.
‘To my brother’s house,’ Joseph said. ‘There’s a lot of families around here. They’re decent people, but the right information in a Gestapo officer’s ear can earn your husband or son repatriation from Germany, so it’s best not to waft temptation under their noses.’
‘What about checkpoints?’
‘We’d have to be very unlucky,’ Joseph said. ‘There’s nothing of strategic value around here. You can go a month without seeing a German.’
‘Justin said there was a garrison.’
‘More of a geriatric ward,’ Joseph said. ‘You only get posted out here if you’re no use anywhere else.’
‘So does your brother have family?’ Rosie asked.
‘He’s an army doctor.’
‘A prisoner?’ Rosie asked.
Joseph nodded, and Rosie’s paranoid side linked the fact he was a prisoner with the comment about rewarding informants by sending prisoners home.
‘I was studying medicine in Le Mans, but the Gestapo shut my academy down after a student protest,’ Joseph explained, as the buggy picked up speed. ‘Now I’m living out of sight, hoping the Compulsory Labour Service doesn’t track me down and pack me off to Germany.’
‘Aren’t doctors exempt?’ Rosie asked, as they turned on to a narrower track.
‘But I’m not a doctor yet. And even doctors get sent to Germany. They’ve got more wounded soldiers than German doctors can care for. And what about you?’
‘What about me?’ Rosie asked defensively.
Joseph laughed noisily. ‘Well, there must be a good story. Not many girls your age turn up on a coal train, with a machine gun in