We need to remember that this is not about us. It’s about 64those that are relying on us to – literally – save their lives. Please, on behalf of those whose voices we cannot hear, look into your heart of hearts and do the right thing.

They must have been able to feel each other’s breath, the heat of each other’s bodies.

Ok, Steve said, and raised his hands, palms outward. Ok, you got me. Ok.

They had looked at each other for a moment longer, then a slow blush had spread across Rebekah’s cheeks. She had looked away.

Across the aisle, Rebekah is watching a movie. She can’t quite see what Steve is doing, can’t see Pastor Rick and Jen at all. She leans her head against the cool wall of the cabin and looks out of the window. There is nothing to see: Ireland is five hours ahead and they have already hurtled into night-time. She has her study Bible with her, of course. She should read it, or pray. She should rehearse potential arguments in her head.

Is it ok to sanction sex-slavery or pedophilia, because ‘people will do it anyway’?

Should we stop teaching the times tables in school, because the Christian Church agrees with math?

Wrong is wrong, even if everyone’s wrong. Right is right, even if nobody else is right.

Instead, she thinks of the dermatologist’s waiting room. You had to take a pregnancy test before he’d prescribe you Accutane, and once a month while you were on it. She came 65out of the consulting room and announced to her mom, Well, I’m definitely not pregnant again! She said it too loud, and a couple of people glanced at her as if she might be. The shame of it: she’d never even kissed a boy, only once held hands with Noah Dean. The shame of the green blister pack of Microgynon contraceptive pills in her washbag.

Isotretinoin had severe teratogenic effects, the leaflet that came with the Accutane box said. If exposed in the first trimester, a foetus had a 20–35% chance of serious craniofacial, cardiovascular, thymic and central nervous system malformations. A further 30% of infants with no gross malformations would have moderate to severe mental retardation, and up to 60% would have impaired neuropsychological function. They used to play a game when they were younger, goading each other with worse and worse scenarios. All of them, always, were adamant they’d have the baby. But she really would. She would have it and she would love it, whatever it looked like, however deformed it was. She would love it and nothing, nothing on earth, could change the fact that it would be hers, her baby.