My great fear was for Kendal. I lived again and again that terrible moment when I had thought the building was going to collapse on him.

And, if the Baron had not thrown himself upon him, if he had not protected him . my small child would surely have been crushed to death.

It was strange what I owed this man. All my humiliation, my subjection and now. my son's life.

I kept hearing Nicole's voice.

"There is good in him. You can find it.

Yes, I had found something good already. He had come to take us away . risking his life to do so, as it was now proved. He had saved my son's life.

I sat there through the darkness of the night. I did not light a candle. Nicole had said some days before that we must preserve the candles . we must preserve everything. There was certain to be a shortage.

So I sat there and watched the dawn come while I looked down on the contours of his sleeping face. A certain colour had returned to it and it no longer had that look of death on it. He was breathing more easily. I knew that he would live and I felt a great gladness in my heart.

I closed my eyes and I thought: Too much is happening in too short a time. Death is always close, I suppose, but at times like this it comes nearer. Nicole had always seemed so alive . and then suddenly, walking along a street, she is struck down . and that is the end. And the Baron! It could so easily have happened to him.

It was war. I had brushed it aside, shown little interest in it.

Stupid wars which men fought to amuse themselves, for no one ever came well out of war. And people died . one's loved ones went into the street and that was the end.

I opened my eyes. He was looking at me.

"Kate," he said.

I leaned over him.

"How do you feel?"

"Strange," he said.

"Very strange ..."

"It was the bombardment. A wall fell on you."

"I remember." Then quickly: "The boy?"

"He's unharmed."

"Thank God."

"Thank you, too," I said.

A smile touched his lips and he closed his eyes.

I felt the tears in my own. I thought: He will get well. Yes, he is indestructible.

I was glad he was with us. Even lying in a bed more dead than alive he brought a feeling of security.

Kendal had slipped into the room. I held out my hand and he ran to me.

"Is he asleep?"

I nodded.

"Is he very hurt?"

"I think he might be."

"Do you think he would like to come to the Gardens and fly my oriflamme kite tomorrow?"

"Not tomorrow," I said.

"But perhaps ... one day."

There was an unreality about the days which followed. My thoughts were entirely taken up with nursing the Baron, which was the main preoccupation of our days. It was a great relief when the bombardment stopped and the days were quiet, though ominously so. The Baron spent most of those first days in sleep. The doctor had given me something to make him do so and he had taught me how to dress the wound. He was an earnest young man, very concerned about the situation.

"We were expecting a rush of casualties," he said, 'but I think the enemy realizes those sort of tactics don't work so well. They can batter the town but Paris is a big place and if the people see their city attacked they become stubborn. These Prussians know how to conduct a war and my view is that they will try to starve us into surrender. "

"A grim prospect."

"For Paris ... yes. Those Bonapartes have a great deal to answer for."

He was a stern republican but I couldn't care about politics, and I was grateful for what he did for me.

Jeanne was a wonderful help. She went out every morning to see what she could buy and it was the excitement of the day to look through her shopping basket when she returned. We had a considerable amount of flour in the house so we were able to bake bread which would keep us going for some time if everything else failed.

I took Kendal for a walk in the afternoons while Jeanne remained at home in case the Baron wanted anything. I never went far from the house and I would not let Kendal out of my sight.

I explained to him what had happened to Nicole. He was an extremely intelligent child and once again I was amazed by the manner in which children adapt themselves to circumstances. He seemed to grasp the fact that there had been a war which the French had lost and because of this we were now living in a besieged city.

There was pitifully little to see in the shops. Quite a lot of the produce sold in Paris came from the surrounding villages. We had often heard them trundling in in the early hours of the morning on the way to Les Halles. They had come from all directions. Now no one came into Paris and no one went out.

The days had settled into a routine which seemed particularly quiet.

It was an ominous monotony because nothing stays still for long in a siege.

The Baron was regaining his strength. His leg was still in a sorry state but his constitution was just about as strong as a man's could be and he was fast recovering from the shock and loss of blood.

Now he could sit up. I propped his leg up with pillows and I found a stick which he could use when he hobbled about. But even the shortest walk was such an effort at first that he would collapse exhausted after a few minutes.

It was strange to see him stripped of that strength which had been so much a part of him.

"You're like Samson," I told him, 'shorn of his locks. "

"Remember," he said, 'his hair grew again. "

"Yes. And you will regain your strength."

"And be a cripple?"

"You're fortunate. It could have been worse."

"It might have been better too," he added ironically.

"You are thinking that if I had not stubbornly refused to leave Paris when you first asked, this would not have happened to you. Nicole would be here ..." My voice broke and he said: "We all make mistakes sometimes."

"Even you," I said, with a flash of the old enmity.

"Yes," he said, 'alas, even I. "

Our relationship had changed. That was inevitable. He was the patient; I was the nurse; and we were living in a situation charged with danger. We did not know from one moment to the next when death would come to claim us.

My great hope was that I should not be left and that if death came it would take me and not Kendal or the Baron. I used to lie awake and think: If I were taken he would look after Kendal. He cares for him.

He saved his life. I should hate to think of my son's being brought up to be such another as he is, but he would save him and he loves him.

So please God, don't take them and leave me.

There were no servants now. They had left before Nicole died. Some of them had had the wisdom to get out of the city. They were country girls who had homes to go to. So there were just myself, Kendal, the Baron and Jeanne. The concierge and his wife were in their apartments, but they kept very much to themselves.

I spent a great deal of time with the Baron. When I came into the room where he lay I noticed the pleasure which showed in his eyes.

Sometimes he said: "You've been a long time."

Then I would reply: "You don't need constant care now. You're getting better. I have other things to do, you know."

I spoke to him like that, with a touch of asperity just as I used to.

I don't think he wanted it to change and nor did I. "Sit down there," he would say.

"Talk to me. Tell me what the madmen are doing now."

Then I would tell him what I had learned of the war, that the Prussians were surrounding Paris and even penetrating the north of the country.

"They'll take the towns," he said.

"They won't bother about places like Centeville."

Then I told him goods had almost disappeared from the shops and it was going to be difficult to feed ourselves if it went on like this.

"And you have saddled yourself with another mouth to feed."

"I owe you that," I said, 'and I like to pay my debts. "

"So the balance has changed. You are on the debit side now."

"No," I replied.

"But you saved my son's life and for that I will look after you until you are well enough to stand on your own feet."

He tried to take my hand but I withdrew it.

"And that other little misdemeanour?" he asked.

"That act of savagery? No, that is still outstanding."

"I will try to earn a remission of my sins," he said humbly. That was how our conversation was-much as it had always been, although now and then a light and bantering note would break in.

He was getting better. The leg was healing and he could spend longer walking about the house without exhausting himself. But in the afternoons I used to insist on his resting while I took Kendal out for a walk, leaving Jeanne in charge. He was always watching the door for my return.

"I wish you wouldn't take those afternoon rambles," he said.

"We have to go out sometimes. I never go far from the house."

"I am in a state of anxiety until you return and that is not good for me. Every nurse worthy of the name knows that patients should not be subjected to anxiety. It impedes recovery."

"I'm sorry you don't think I'm worthy to be a nurse."

"Kate," he said, 'come and sit down. I think you are worthy to be anything you want to be. I'm going to tell you something extraordinary. Do you know . here I am incapacitated, probably about to be crippled for life, in a besieged city, lying in a room with death looking in at the window, now knowing from one moment to the next what dire tragedy will descend on me . and I'm happy. I think I am happier than I have ever been in my life. "

"Then yours must have been a very wretched existence."

"Not wretched ... worthless. That's it."

"And you think this is worthwhile ... lying here ... recuperating . doing nothing but eating when we can get something to eat... and talking to me."

"That's just the point. It's talking to you ... having you near .. watching over me like a guardian angel ... not allowing me to stay up too long ... bringing my gruel ... this is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me."

"Such situations have not been frequent in my life either."

"Kate, it means something."

"Oh?"

"That I'm happy... happier than I've ever been... being here with you."

"If you were well enough," I reminded him, 'you would get yourself a horse and be out of the city in an hour. "

"It would take a little longer than that. And there won't be any horses left soon. They'll be eating them."

I shivered.

"They have to eat something," he went on.

"But what were we saying?

I'd be out of this city with you and the boy. and we should take Jeanne, of course. But these days . there has been something very precious about them for me. "