Even as Mo wondered what best to do, the man turned away from the train and came striding towards her. She caught a glimpse of heavy eyebrows drawn together in a frown and a duffel coat with the collar turned up to hide most of his face, and then he spotted her. ‘Hey, you!’ he shouted. ‘Come here. I want a word with you!’

For one terrifying moment Mo stood statue still, staring at the man approaching. Then she threw the bottle at him with all her strength, hearing it break into a thousand pieces as it bounced off his chest and hit the platform, and then she was running, dodging in and out of the trees, slipping and sliding, panting with effort, until she could no longer hear him crashing through the wood behind her. She found a space where the undergrowth had filled in a gap where trees had fallen and wriggled into the thickest part of it. For a long time she simply lay there, peering out between the tough stems of dead bracken, brambles and nettles. It was only then, in the silence, that she put her hands over her face and began to cry.

Glenys had told Jimmy about the man who had looked into the compartment – Jimmy had been in the lavatory at the time – but she had attached no significance to it, since the man had scarcely glanced at her before scowling and moving on. ‘He didn’t get on the train, but anyway I’m pretty sure he was nothing to do with us,’ she had assured Jimmy. ‘He had thick black eyebrows and a bushy black beard. He looked like a seaman, or so I’d judge from his clothing, but I imagine he was searching for a pal he’d expected to meet at this time, and hadn’t heard about the two-hour delay.’

The train stopped at their destination, and Jimmy leapt up to lift down their bags before grinning at Glenys. ‘What’s the betting Mo will want to stay with the puppy until she can hand it over to its new owner?’

‘Well she can’t,’ Glenys said decisively. ‘If we find your relatives and they agree to her keeping a pet that’s one thing, but she really must learn to do as she’s told, so you make it pretty plain that she has to come along straight away.’ As she spoke she was collecting crumpled sandwich wrappings and empty cardboard cups, and casting an eye around the compartment to see that all was as it should be. Then she and Jimmy went into the corridor and along to the nearest door to step down on to the platform. ‘Give me the bags, and you go and winkle Mo out of the guard’s van. I’ll wait by the ticket office. Tell her she’s got to come now, no matter how much she pleads to accompany the puppy; I’ve got her ticket, and they won’t let her out of the station without it.’