Again Ellie gave her no answer but now she shut her eyes, shaking her head.

Ellie, Ellie. Ruby wanted to shake her until she saw sense but gather her up in her arms at the same time. The room reeked of cheap perfume and another mustier odour that was distinctly unpleasant. Swallowing hard, Ruby said, ‘Get dressed and we’ll leave here for good, lass.’

As though she hadn’t heard Ruby, and still with her eyes shut, Ellie whispered, ‘It started with him asking me to do a pal of his a favour. Daniel said this man had lost his wife and was knotted up inside and that if I was kind to him it would help him get back to normal. I said no. Once I came here I knew Daisy had men in her room but I thought . . . Oh, I don’t know what I thought. Anyway, Daniel got angry, he said if I loved him I would do it for him, it would prove how much I thought of him. He said we could start thinking about getting married. So –’ Ellie opened her eyes – ‘so I did it. The – the next day I think he must have put something in my drink because we’d been out, Daniel and me, and Daisy and Howard, and I came over a bit funny and that’s all I remember till I woke up in bed with – with two men I didn’t know. Daniel said I’d agreed to it, that me and Daisy had said we wanted some fun, but I wouldn’t have. I know I wouldn’t have.’

‘Of course you wouldn’t, I know that.’

‘He got angry again when I argued with him and . . .’ Her voice trailed away. She took a deep breath and whispered, ‘He’s all right if I do what he says, but he would kill me if I tried to leave, you must believe me, Ruby. And you, he’d kill you too. You don’t know some of the things he’s done. He’d find me wherever I went and—’

‘Ellie, he’s told you this to scare you but he’s not omnipotent, he’s not God.’ The Devil, more like. ‘If we go far enough—’

Now it was Ellie who interrupted Ruby, her voice gentle and almost pitying when she said quietly, ‘It’s no good, lass. It’s too late. You have to accept that. And – and it’s not too bad when you get used to it. Some of them just want a bit of comfort.’

Ruby stared at her aghast, but before she could say anything more they heard footsteps running up the stairs and then such a loud thumping on the bedroom door that they both physically jumped. Ruby stood up, but Ellie shot out of bed on the other side and pressed herself against the wall, shaking from head to foot.