I manage to undo my seatbelt and fall heavily onto the roof, which is now the floor. The car’s still making a high-pitched ping, ping, ping.

‘Pete,’ I say. ‘Are you okay?’

‘No,’ he groans and flicks on the cabin light. I help him undo his seatbelt and he crumples down beside me with an agonised moan. We scramble about until we’re sitting the right way up, and Pete manages to turn off the engine, which stops the awful noise.

His face is scrunched up and he’s holding one arm close to his body. ‘I think I’ve broken my shoulder or arm or something,’ he says through clenched teeth. ‘Can you try opening a window or door?’

I press the window button but it just makes a whirring noise.

Are we trapped here? My panic’s rising fast. I make myself picture the earth somewhere beneath us; the solid earth that’s been here for eons.

I crawl along the roof-floor into the back of the car and try another window button. The window slides up with a scraping sound, and cold air rushes in.

I climb out and flounder through the snow. This muffled quiet is unlike anything I’ve ever known. As soon as I step onto a patch of earth scraped bare by the sliding car, a buzzing sensation rises through me. Hello, earth, I think. Welsh earth.

The snow’s still falling thick and fast, settling silently on my head and on Meredith’s fluffy blue jumper. The cold cuts straight to my bones.

I stick my head back into the car. ‘I’ll help you get out, Pete. Then I’ll use a spell to tip the car the right way up. But I need to find my Welsh dictionary.’

He’s curled up in the front corner of the upside-down car. ‘I’ve hurt my ankle as well. I think it’s broken,’ he says. ‘I can’t move, let alone drive.’

I look up the dark road. How can I possibly get to Llanwydir without Pete and his car? And how will I get back to London in time … whether I find Mum or not?

I crawl back inside and fish around for the woollen coat, scarf and gloves Meredith gave me. ‘We’ll call an ambulance,’ I say, hoping the ambulance will also drive me to the village.

We find Pete’s phone and he dials a number but after a couple of tries, he shakes his head. ‘Maybe it’s the storm.’ He tries one more time. ‘Nup. We’ll have to wait for someone to come along.’ His voice wobbles. ‘Shut the window, please.’