Emma jumped and slopped some tea into her saucer. ‘Goodness me, someone wants to get your attention,’ she declared.

Holly hurried down the stairs to see who it was and as she opened the door someone fell through it, landing heavily on the floor.

‘Ivy, whatever has happened to you?’ Holly’s heart began to bang against her ribcage as she realised her friend looked in a very bad way. Her poor face was black and blue and when she opened her bleeding mouth to try and talk she spat out a tooth.

‘I-it was Jeremy,’ Ivy gulped, clutching her chest. ‘We … had an argument and h-he beat me.’ She seemed to be having trouble breathing. At that moment Emma came clattering down the stairs and when she saw the state Ivy was in she gasped with dismay.

‘We need to get her upstairs,’ she told Holly and somehow between them they managed it. Holly hurried away to fetch a bowl of hot water to bathe her face, as Emma asked gently, ‘Where does it hurt, darling, apart from your poor face that is?’

‘I … I can’t breathe properly,’ Emma croaked painfully. ‘I think he might have broken one of me ribs. A-and this arm hurts too.’

Emma gently took the arm that was dangling uselessly at the girl’s side but when she tried to carefully raise it, Ivy screamed with pain and tears spurted from her eyes.

‘She’s going to have to go to hospital, I think this arm is broken,’ Emma told Holly solemnly. ‘We need to ring for an ambulance. Where is the nearest telephone?’

‘It’s down in the shop and I’m sure Miss May wouldn’t mind me using it. I’ll go and do it right now.’ Holly left like a shot from a gun leaving her mother to do what little she could for Ivy.

‘The ambulance is on its way,’ Holly panted minutes later and all they could do then was whisper soothing words to Ivy as they waited for it to arrive.

When it came the ambulance men lifted Ivy carefully onto a stretcher making her cry out with pain.

‘I’m coming with her,’ Holly said determinedly.

‘So am I,’ Emma replied but Holly frowned.

‘But I could be gone for hours. You’ll miss your train if you come too,’ Holly pointed out.

‘As if I’d go home and leave you to deal with this all on your own,’ Emma retorted indignantly. She was very fond of Ivy and there was no way she was going to leave until she at least knew the extent of her injuries. ‘I’ll telephone your grandfather from the hospital and explain what’s happened and tell him I might not be back for a couple of days. He’ll quite understand.’

And so they both squashed into the back of the ambulance with Ivy and before they knew it they were racing towards the hospital where they were shown into a waiting room while Ivy was whipped away to be examined.