Dilys looked at her sympathetically. ‘It’s horrible in there, isn’t it? Just try to accept things and it will be easier for you.’

‘How can I accept things?’ Ruby retorted tearfully. ‘I shouldn’t even be here but the matron informs me that until the person who put me in comes back for me there’s no way out. I just hope that Miranda has a conscience.’

‘I used to think like that.’ Dilys’s voice held a wealth of sadness.

‘So how long have you been in here then?’ Ruby asked curiously.

Dilys shrugged. ‘Some fifteen years or so now, I think. I lost track after a time.’

‘And why were you put in here? Of course you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ Ruby added hastily, fearing that she might have overstepped the mark.

‘It’s all right.’ Dilys’s eyes grew dreamy as she thought back in time. ‘I was put in here because I fell in love,’ she said quietly. ‘The trouble was my family thought that Steven, the man I loved, was beneath me because he was working class and they did everything they could to keep us apart. And then I found out I was having a baby.’ She gulped before going on. ‘Steven and I thought that with a baby due they would relent and let us marry but instead they had me placed in here. I would have brought shame on their name, you see?’

Ruby was horrified. ‘But didn’t Steven come looking for you?’

‘Oh, I’m sure he would have but they told him that I had gone to visit an aunt and that I had died in an accident.’

‘But that’s dreadful!’ Ruby could hardly believe that anyone could be so wicked. ‘And what became of your baby?’