I looked longingly at the bathroom door. ‘I want a bath. I want to wash with no one watching me.’

He seemed slightly crestfallen. ‘All right. And dinner after?’

‘Honestly, I couldn’t face it. The stares. Do they do room service?’

A slight pause. He had imagined taking me out, feting me. Glorying in his triumph, how he had saved my life. I found out later he had even bought me a dress, though in the wrong size, a tight bodycon thing I would perhaps have worn back in England, but not now. In fact, I would never wear revealing clothes again, after the way they’d been used against me.

I locked the bathroom door after me, feeling a bit ungrateful, and breathed a deep, shuddering sigh of relief. A lock on this side of the door. Alone on my own terms. I turned on the taps, marvelled at how the hot water gushed out. And no one was watching. I stripped off my sweaty dress and tights, right down to my prison undies, which I threw into the bin. I would buy some more – I could do that now, walk into a shop and get anything I needed.

I filled the bath with a whole tiny bottle of bubbles and sank in, letting out a moan as the warm water surrounded me. It was like getting my body back, when it had not been my own for so long. I ran a hand over my ribs, so pronounced, my skin so pale and saggy.

A knock on the door. ‘Are you OK? I heard a noise.’

I rolled my eyes slightly. It would be the first of many times, though I didn’t know that yet.

‘I’m fine.’

I could hear Jeremy breathing outside, hovering. ‘If you need anything, just say. What do you want to eat?’

I could have whatever I wanted. I thought back to what I had most missed. ‘Pizza, please. Really hot and crispy.’

In my bath, I breathed in and out. I took further stock of my prison body, noting the dryness of my hands and feet, the weak give of my nails, undernourished. My hair was a frizzy, half-mousy-brown, half-blonde disaster. My eyebrows were a monobrow, and I hadn’t shaved any part of my body in years – razors obviously were very much not allowed, in case we slashed our wrists. It was only for the state to kill us, when they so chose.