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'You have to get out of here. Don't you realise...?'

'Nothing. I did what she wanted me to do. I'd do it again. I've harmed no one. The British Expeditionary Force is no worse off. No one has had their dignity impaired. I'd say he's better off where he is. Lookit, Alec, at least I got up off my backside and did something.'

'You did have to choose just the wrong thing to do.'

He threw an arm across my shoulders and we lay in silence.

My warmth was spreading through him, but the hand that clasped the back of my neck was still cold as a stone fresh from the sea.

I thought he had gone to sleep. The beating of our hearts was like the cracking wings of swans lifting slowly from the lake, leaving disturbed water below.

'When we get home we'll get a place of our own.' His voice was soft with drowsiness.

A simple dream of two people that will never come true.