Suddenly a feeling of unease flared to life as he thought of his daughter. Could it be that she had had anything to do with Ruby’s disappearance? He rejected the idea almost immediately. Of course she couldn’t have. Miranda had been at her grandparents’ home with her mother on the day that Ruby had disappeared and Hermione had said that Ruby had left the house alone. Hermione had also insisted that only she and Ruby knew where the key to the safe was kept so it could only have been Ruby who had taken the diamonds. It was a mystery and all they could do now was pray that Ruby would return with some logical explanation.

*

‘How are you feeling?’ Dilys asked sympathetically one morning as she sat with Ruby at breakfast in the dining room at Hatter’s Hall. Following another tantrum, Ruby had spent another day in the punishment room and her face was as pale as a piece of lint and there were dark shadows beneath her eyes. ‘Why don’t you do as I say and just try to accept things,’ she whispered. She was growing more and more concerned for the girl.

‘I do try to,’ Ruby said in a shaky voice. ‘But then I just get so frustrated. It’s so unfair. Neither you nor I nor a number of these other people should be here,’ she said bitterly.

They became aware of Nurse Keen watching them and wisely stopped talking as they ate the food that had been slapped down in front of them. Already Ruby had learnt that she only needed an excuse to dole out punishment and after the day she had just spent trussed up in a straitjacket, she wasn’t keen to repeat it.

The day did take a slight turn for the better, however, when, after breakfast, the matron appeared. ‘You will all be allowed half an hour’s fresh air today seeing as the weather is so clement.’ She pointed to a table at the other side of the room and told the nurses on duty, ‘Take four patients at a time, but no more than half an hour mind.’

The first four were led away as the rest of the patients were taken back to their rooms, and at the prospect of seeing the sun and the sky Ruby felt a little brighter. It was late in the morning before Nurse Keen appeared at the door to usher her outside to a small courtyard surrounded by a high brick wall. Dilys was already there walking in circles along with two older women who merely leant against the bricks staring up at the deep blue sky.

‘Half an hour!’ the nurse barked, then went back into the building, locking the door behind her.