‘I was not with him,’ she said after a moment. ‘My father meet him and tell me he is good man who will bring me to England and help me find me job and place to live. But it was lie, because Nikolai take me to house and lock me in room when I arrive. He say I owe him money for flight, and I must sleep with men to repay.’

Frank was shocked. He’d seen documentaries about these types of things, but he had never imagined they could be happening so close to home.

‘When I tell him I will not do it, he beat me,’ Irena went on. ‘And he say he will kill me and my family if I try to run away.’

‘Does your father know any of this?’ Frank asked, trying to imagine how he would react if anything like this were ever to happen to Jo.

‘My father does not care,’ she replied bitterly. ‘He is only interest in money.’

‘What about your mum, then?’

‘She die, like your wife. But my father is not strong, like you. He is angry, and he drink too much. Then he lose job, and there is no more money to pay for my brother to see doctor.’

‘Your brother’s ill?’

‘In here.’ Irena touched a fingertip to her temple. ‘He is . . . difficult,’ she went on. ‘Our father blame him for make our mother unhappy and take her own life, and he beat him with stick and call him devil. But is him who make our mother unhappy, not Karel.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Frank murmured. ‘It must have been a terrible time for you.’

‘My mother is free now, and this make me happy,’ said Irena. Then, sighing, she said, ‘I promise Karel I will send for him when I have earn enough, but I did not know this was never going to happen – that Nikolai would not allow me to keep money.’

‘Where’s the house he took you to?’ Frank asked, wondering if he could pass the address on to the authorities without telling them about her.

‘I do not know.’ Irena shrugged. ‘He say is Manchester, but this mean nothing to me.’

‘Manchester?’ Frank’s eyebrows shot up. ‘That’s an hour’s drive away. How on earth did you get here?’

‘I walk. Was very far, and I fear I will not make it. But I was more afraid that he will find me if I stop, so I keep walk until I think I am safe. And this is when you find me.’

‘Christ, no wonder you didn’t want to go back when I offered you a lift,’ Frank said, struggling to get his head around what he’d heard. ‘But how did you escape?’