‘Nothing!’ I related what had happened. When I had finished, he went to the window and stood there for a while, before pulling the curtain fully across and sitting in the wing-backed chair. ‘What shall we do?’ I begged him. Now that the shock was wearing off, my stomach was twisting at the thought that it was my baseless suspicions that had resulted in Nick being taken in. If I hadn’t gone there, he would never have been sent for and would probably have come home from the surgery like any other day.

Charles rubbed his forehead. Mine still ached from where I had hit it on the bath, although the pain was lessening. ‘It’s hard to say. I have some friends in the Party. I’ll contact them and ask them to find out the situation.’

‘Can they get him out?’ It was a glimmer of hope.

‘I believe they can try.’

‘Well, please call them. Please. Do anything you can think of. Anything.’ That guilt, I knew, would tear me to pieces if things turned worse.

‘Yes, yes, I will. Straight away. Can you think of any friends of your husband’s who might be able to exert some influence?’

I sat mentally running through all of Nick’s friends and colleagues who might be of use. But my mind just wasn’t working properly. And, besides that, I didn’t really know many or what they could achieve. Charles put forward a few names but I was only vaguely aware of them. He knew them and their potential far better than I did, so I just agreed to whatever he suggested. I ran out of words. I had never known anyone taken away by NatSec.

We were interrupted by a knock on the front door and my heart leaped at the thought that it might be news of Nick’s release. When I dashed to answer it, I found a woman in police uniform on the doorstep and I felt sure this must be it, she had come to tell me Nick was coming home – but then I saw, behind her, a tall, thin fourteen-year-old girl, her orange hair falling across her face from under a school cap, and I realized that the officer’s visit was for a different reason. ‘Oh, Hazel,’ I said, going to the girl with my arms outstretched.

‘Are you her stepmother?’ asked the policewoman.

‘Yes.’