‘I’ll be fine – honest,’ she assured him and began to move away.

‘Take care, then, my dear. Take care.’

‘I will. Thanks, Mester.’

She knew it was a long way to the coast and Fleethaven Point – forty miles or more – but she was not afraid of the distance. All she wanted was to be away from that dreadful school and back home with her family – and with Danny. But she had not, in her moment of precipitate flight, thought of the trouble she would face when she did reach home. For the first time her footsteps slowed. She could almost hear her mother’s voice raised in anger and see her stepfather’s anxious face.

Then the idea, which had come into her mind as an excuse to the priest, now took root. Her grandad. She would go to her grandad. Hadn’t he told her to do just that if she needed help?

And she needed help now.

It was then that she felt the first spots of rain. They were huge droplets, heralding a downpour. Kate looked around anxiously. The city was three miles behind her now and open fields bordered the road on both sides. Only here and there did lights shine into the dusk from the windows of cottages and farmhouses.

She trudged on, bending her face against the rain falling heavily now, quickly soaking through her gym-slip and blouse. The thin-soled house shoes she was wearing offered no protection. She wished she still had her sturdy boots but the matron had thrown them away with a look of disgust upon her face. Kate’s hair – what was left of it – was wet through and rivulets of water were running down her neck.

On her left a clutch of farm buildings loomed in the darkness. Holding her breath, Kate tiptoed to the farm gate. Hoping that it was too wet for even the farm dogs to be prowling around, she felt her way stealthily around the wall of the nearest building until she came to an open door. Inside the darkness was even blacker, but as she walked forwards carefully, her hands outstretched in front of her, she felt her feet rustle in straw – deep, dry straw. She took off her wet tunic and spread it out. Then she burrowed beneath the straw and curled up. Although she was still wet and hungry, now at least there was a little warmth. Exhausted, she was asleep in seconds.

She awoke to the sound of rain pounding on the roof and to see daylight filtering through the wooden boards of the barn walls. Scrambling up, she struggled into her damp gym-slip. She must go; the farmer might set his dogs on her for trespassing. Opening the barn door a crack, Kate peeped out. There was no one about and she was out of the barn, into the road and running before anyone had seen her.