‘Why? No reason why there should.’

‘But there has to be!’

He tilted his head on one side as he looked up at her. ‘Wishing it doesn’t make it happen. Did you wish to get here?’

‘No.’

‘There’s your answer then.’ He gazed back into the embers. ‘How did you get here?’

‘There, there was a fire. And we ran.’

‘Is that right?’

‘It was more than a fire,’ said Dalip. ‘It seemed like the whole of London was burning. We thought we’d got out from the Tube, but the street outside was on fire too. Everything, everything was burning.’

‘And were you in danger?’

Dalip turned to Stanislav. ‘How many were in there in our shift?’

‘Thirty or so.’ He threw another log on the fire, and the sparks flew up into the leaves overhead.

‘Two of us survived. Mary?’

‘Twenty. Five of us got out.’ She turned to look at Grace, who stared back. ‘Something like that, anyway.’

‘I’m told that’s how it happens,’ said the man. ‘You think you’re going to die, and you open a door, and this place is behind it. You can choose to stay, or you can choose to step through. I don’t know how many people stay. Maybe most of them, maybe none of them, I can’t say one way or the other. All I do know is that those who come here, stay here.’

Dalip sighed. ‘But that still doesn’t tell us where we are.’

‘This is my home. This is where I was born, and where I’ll most likely die. I’ve never been to your London. I suppose it must be a real place to you, but it’s just a story to me. I’ve never seen a signpost or a map with it on, and I’ve never known anyone go there from here. You, any of you: ever heard of anyone who’s come here and gone back? No? Then this is where you are now.’

‘Forever?’

‘Forever’s a long time. Who’s to say what might happen?’

Mary started to speak – several times, and each time the words got caught in her throat. She eventually gave up, her shoulders slumping.

Mama had no such problems. ‘So what are we supposed to do, wolfman? Where do we go? Where do we stay?’

He regarded her with his pale eyes, as blue as the wolves’. If she was intimidated, she didn’t show it. She put her hands on her hips and waited.

‘Well?’

‘What do you want to do?’

‘Go home to my babies,’ she said. With force.

‘Apart from that.’ He shifted diffidently.

‘There has to be someone who can help us.’ Mama tried again. ‘Someone has to be in charge.’

‘It might be like that in your London. It’s not here.’

‘What is it like here?’