A steady drizzle was falling, but Lily was well protected beneath her rain cover. In fact, she was probably fast asleep because she was so quiet, no doubt lulled by the soothing motion of the pushchair. As she limped hurriedly along the street, cursing her aching knee, Ella turned over various possibilities in her mind. There was only one person she knew who might be relatively unaware of the details of the news story about a missing baby. Without having seen any of the photographs splashed all over the front pages of local newspapers and no doubt shown on the news on television, Christine might have no idea that Ella was being chased by the police. There was no reason why she would suspect the unlikely truth.

The bus dropped Ella and Lily about a mile from her schoolfriend’s address. By the time Ella found the house she was looking for she was tired, her knee was throbbing and her shoulders ached from pushing the buggy. A lamp in the narrow porch lit up the front door, and she found the bell easily. If Christine turned her away, she would have nowhere else to go; nowhere she would be safe, that was. Daylight was fading fast as she rang the bell a second time, praying that Christine was at home.

She breathed a cautious sigh of relief when Christine opened the door on the chain, eyes scanning the air in front of her with rapid irregular movements in a way that Ella remembered. She used to join in the mockery of her blind classmate when they were at school together, and now she found herself automatically rotating her own eyes to mirror Christine’s wandering gaze.

‘Christine,’ she blurted out, and paused.

‘Yes? Who is it?’

‘Christine, it’s Ella, from school.’

‘Ella?’

In the light overhead she saw a faint frown flicker across Christine’s face.

‘Yes, you remember me, Ella Wilson. We were at school together.’

‘Of course I remember you.’

There was a bitter timbre in the blind girl’s voice. It was hardly a warm greeting.

‘What do you want, Ella?’

Ella decided it was best to be as honest as the truth would allow.

‘I – I need your help,’ she said simply.

Christine began to close the door. As if she realised this was a critical moment, the baby woke up and began to howl.

‘Is that a baby?’ Christine asked, halting in surprise.

‘Yes, she’s mine and we have nowhere to go and it’s raining,’ Ella said quickly. ‘If you don’t let us in I don’t know where else we can go at this time of night, in the dark and the rain.’ The baby was crying more loudly. ‘She’s called Lily,’ Ella added.