Families had started to vacate their homes at sunset, to sleep out in barns or in fields so as not to be in bed when the soldiers came swinging in, banging on doors, letting off bullets or grenades, threatening to set houses and farm buildings alight, or to shoot or bayonet people in their nightshirts.
And she had had to balance her work for the movement with her schoolteaching and her home duties. More than once, she had imagined what a relief it would be to do what only boys were allowed to do: go on the run with a band of others of like mind and carry out ambushes and raids on barracks. To have nothing only that to think about, and to receive the honour and glory given to those who go out and fight, seemed like luxury.
Her role was more humble and she accepted that and tried to be che
