Telling myself she would remember, I crawled on, feeling the ground. I felt brick. My hands moved upward, trailing up a solid, brick wall. I rose to my knees and reached up. The wall continued upward. I stood up slowly, worried I might hit my head if the ceiling was too low, but I was able to stand up. I felt for the ceiling, but couldn’t reach it. The hole was deep.

Relieved to be able to stand up straight, I moved to the right and reached another brick wall, which I followed round until I came to the steps that led down here. I retraced my steps, moving back round to the left, hands trailing the brick wall. My feet collided with something hard and I jumped at the unexpected object. It was a bookcase. I felt the spines of books, my heart lifting a notch. If I could persuade Mother to bring me a light of some kind, at least I could read until I could work out a way to escape.

I didn’t let myself consider the possibility of never escaping. I told myself that Mother would let me out eventually or I would escape. I would get out of here, one way or another. I had to.

Emma’s big eyes flashed into my mind. Emma was still out there somewhere. Hot shame swept over me. It was my fault she was out there all alone. Mother would never have put Emma down here. If I had helped her find Emma, Emma would be safe and sound in the cottage – as safe as she could be with a kidnapper.

I closed my eyes, forced myself to focus on now. Focus on where I was, what I was doing.

The air was warm and thick. Too warm. I yanked on the collar of the stupid doll dress and blew air down my front, but my breath was hot and did little to cool my skin.

Tears welled up, but I gritted my teeth, determined not to give up.

I edged past the bookcase and felt the wall again. Nothing. I sidestepped to the left, trailing my fingers across the bricks. My hands bumped into something else – something metal that rose as high as my waist. I moved my hands from the wall to the metal object and quickly worked out that it was a metal bed frame. Bending over, I felt bedcovers, a mattress and a sheet. There was a bed down here. At least if Mother did leave me here for a while, I would have somewhere to sleep. A dirty bed was better than a dirty floor.