Unbidden, and for no reason that she could understand, a feeling of peace crept through her. Although she was still sitting among them, for an hour or so she was safe from the taunts of her fellow-pupils and Miss Denham’s scolding.

For the first time since she had arrived in Lincoln, Kate felt a sense of security as she gazed around her in wonderment. She forgot her own misfortune as she marvelled at the beauty of the building and listened to the pure voices of the choir, the music reverberating sweetly through the vastness.

Miss Denham walked up and down the aisle twice during the service, her sharp eyes lingering on whisperers, who, reddening, subsided at once.

Kate knelt for the final prayer. ‘Please let me go home,’ she prayed silently and fervently, squeezing her eyes tightly shut and pressing her hands together so hard her wrists hurt. ‘Please make something happen so I can go home . . .’

There was shuffling all around her and she opened her eyes to see that everyone was rising to leave. She sighed and scrambled to her feet. As they filed out of the cathedral, Kate felt bereft as if she were being dragged from a place of sanctuary.

‘There’s a uniform inspection!’ Hazel came running into the dormitory, slamming the door behind her. ‘Miss Denham and Matron! They’re in “B” Dormitory now. They’ll be here next. Quick!’

‘Oh help!’ wailed one girl down the far end of the dormitory. ‘I’ve lost my house shoes. I’ll be for it.’

‘I saw a pair in the bathroom last night. Did you leave them there?’

The girl’s face brightened. ‘Ooh thanks, Hazel. I think I did.’ And she scuttled out of the room to retrieve her lost property.

Kate watched all the girls in the room opening drawer after drawer of their bedside cabinets, refolding and tidying the contents. Wardrobe doors were flung open and the clothes hanging there straightened, shoes set neatly beneath.

Brenda was untying the braid girdle around her waist. ‘I think my gym-slip’s too short. If I loosen my sash will it make it a bit longer?’ she asked Isobel.

‘It might do,’ Isobel said doubtfully.

‘Do you think she’ll do a gym-slip inspection?’

‘Bound to. She always does at the beginning of term.’

‘Oooh!’ Brenda wailed. ‘Does that look better, Isobel?’

Isobel inspected her friend’s tunic. ‘A bit,’ she said, sounding none too hopeful.

The door opened and the girl who had gone to find her shoes came in. ‘They’re coming,’ she hissed.

As the Principal and Matron entered, every girl was standing by her bed, almost to attention. Miss Denham carried a ruler and a pair of scissors.

‘Kneel,’ Miss Denham commanded.

Mystified, Kate glanced round to see every girl kneeling down, not against the bed as if to pray, but in a line down the centre of the room.