‘I wasn’t exactly running away, I wanted to talk to Rory, but it must have looked like that.’ It had felt like that, too: escaping from Veronica’s cloying scent, her glamour, the elegant gallery which had seemed to mock everything she’d done in the last two months.

‘I’m so glad I’ve found you. Dad would have been so cross if you’d got lost or anything.’

Thea straightened up, still keeping hold of Toby’s hand. She didn’t think Ben would give a toss – if he could betray her as he had done, why would he care if she took a few wrong turnings and ended up miles from anywhere? ‘Well, I haven’t, so that’s all right. Now, which way back to the gallery?’

Rory shrugged. The rain was still beating down and they were all shivering.

‘Which way, Toby?’ Rory asked. ‘You’re the Londoner.’

‘I don’t live in Knightsbridge,’ Toby said.

‘I can’t believe this!’ Thea said. ‘We’ve only been gone a few moments. We can’t have got so far away that we can’t find our way back.’

‘You were going at a hell of a lick, Thea.’

‘So we are lost, after all?’ asked Toby after they had all looked up and down the streets, searching for clues as to their whereabouts.

‘It certainly seems that way, only not just me, but you and Rory as well.’ She sighed. ‘Well, never mind, we’ll get a taxi and give the gallery’s address. It’s not really a problem. If we walk up to the crossroads, we’ve a better chance of getting one.’

‘It’s always hard to get a taxi when it’s raining,’ said Toby, after trying to spot an orange light on top of the many taxis that sped passed for several minutes.

‘We could go to the underground station,’ suggested Rory. ‘At least we’ll be dry while we look and Knights-bridge tube is quite close to the gallery. I’ll know the way from there.’

‘OK, you find the nearest station, then.’

South Kensington Tube station seemed to be several miles away, although it was probably because they took so many wrong turnings finding it. In her London days Thea always carried about a tattered A to Z. It had since fallen apart completely and, because she was going to be with Magenta, who had a perfect sense of direction, she hadn’t bought a new one. It made her feel incredibly vulnerable.

While they joined hundreds of others waiting for the tube, Thea had a belated thought. ‘I suppose we should ring the gallery and tell them we’ve got Toby. His mother will be out of her mind. Have you got a mobile, Rory?’

‘No. Haven’t you?’

She bit her lip. ‘No. I left it at home. I was in a hurry to get to London.’

‘So, why did you come to London?’