‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,’ Frank apologized, holding up the shopping bags. ‘Lamb chops OK for dinner?’

‘Anything you choose is good,’ Irena said, getting up and following him into the kitchen. ‘Would you like for me to make?’ she offered. ‘I enjoy cook, but Nikolai did not allow us to make food.’

‘Us?’ Frank gave her a questioning look as he took milk and butter out of one of the bags and carried them to the fridge.

‘He has four girl in house,’ she explained as she started emptying the second bag onto the worktop. ‘There is one more when I arrive, but she get sick, so he take her away and we never see her again. Now I, too, am gone, he will need to fill empty room. I only pray he does not go to my village to find more girl, or he may hurt Karel to punish me.’

‘I’m sure he won’t do that,’ Frank said, although he had no idea what this Nikolai man might be capable of.

‘I hope you are right,’ Irena murmured.

She gazed up at Frank when he came to unload more food, and he looked quickly away when he noticed her eyes were the same vivid blue as Maureen’s had been before age and illness had robbed them of colour and vitality.

‘I, um, thought we might take a look online after dinner,’ he said. ‘See if there’s anyone we can contact about your situ—’

‘No,’ Irena interrupted. ‘I have already decide what I am to do. Before I come to this country, I hear about place call London. They say is plenty work there for woman like me, and if is far away, Nikolai will not find me and I will be safe. Is good idea, yes?’

Frank pursed his lips thoughtfully. He still thought she ought to report this man to the police to prevent him from enslaving any more girls – which would also give her the chance to apply for asylum, so she wouldn’t have to spend her life looking over her shoulder in fear of being caught and sent home. But it was her call to make, not his, so he shrugged.

‘If that’s what you want to do, I won’t try to dissuade you. But you’ll need money for the train and somewhere to stay when you get there.’

‘Oh . . . I did not think of this.’ Irena frowned. Then, raising her chin, she said, ‘Is OK. I will find way.’

‘How?’ Frank asked. ‘I’m not trying to put a dampener on your plans, love, but you don’t know anybody in this country apart from me and that man.’

‘I will walk,’ she said.

‘It’s more than two hundred miles,’ Frank pointed out. Then, sighing when he saw the hope fading from her eyes, he said, ‘Don’t worry, I can help you.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I cannot take your money.’