And then, after a while, something changed. The world began to shiver. The colour shifted. In the black there were points of light like distant stars, growing larger, and I could feel myself somehow being drawn towards them. They grew until I could see into them, and I was dragged faster and faster. In my veins, the blood was moving. My muscles were shaking. My arms were rushing through a river.

I burst up out of the water, spraying droplets and gasping for breath, ready to retch. My lungs were on fire as I sucked in all the air that I could. All I knew then was air – I had no idea of my own life until the memories flooded back with the freezing wet that was pouring down me. I twisted around and saw Charles looking towards the stairs. In a second I understood what had distracted him.

Below us, the front door slammed closed. ‘Jane!’ someone called. ‘What’s going on?’ It was Nick. Charles’s head fell as if he were in pain. ‘Jane, are you there?’

I wanted to twist the knife, to tell Charles that Lorelei had despised him, that she laughed at him behind his back, but I couldn’t form any words – they had been drenched out of me.

‘Jane!’ Nick’s voice was in the hall now. Then there were footsteps coming up the stairs.

‘I’m here!’ I cried.

At my shout, Charles seemed to regain his strength and made for the door. Barely able to stand, I stumbled after, grabbing at him as he reached the landing. Nick, part-way up the stairs, looked stupefied at the sight of us. In the darkness of the hall he was holding the lighted oil lamp that he used to see through the smog, and, from the way I was grasping at Charles and the state of my torn and soaking clothes, he must have gained some idea of what had happened. Charles stopped when he saw Nick, and they both stared, until Nick began to move again, rushing towards us. Charles, seeing no other way out, leaped down the stairs, barging with his shoulder and hardly touching the steps. Nick was stronger and fitter, but Charles had the momentum. As he moved through the air, I yelled Nick’s name, as if I could somehow protect him.