He stood in the doorway, grinning at her, his dark hair tousled, his skin weathered brown and glowing with health. Then she saw the smile fade. ‘Oh, Kate – ya pretty hair,’ he sympathized, moving into the room and coming to perch on the end of her bed. ‘Did ya mam have to cut it off because of the fever?’

Kate shook her head. The nightmare was back; the scissors, the strong arms and her face pressed against Miss Denham’s corseted bosom.

‘I – I dun’t want to talk about it . . .’

His grin was back. Comfortingly he said, ‘Well, it’ll grow again. ‘Sides, it’s lovely and curly when it’s short, in’t it?’

‘You’re just saying that to cheer me up.’ But she too was grinning now. Then the smile wobbled a little. ‘Danny – when I ran away from the school, I left the whelk shell you gave me.’

‘Dun’t worry about that – plenty more on the beach. I’ll bring you another.’

‘But that was special,’ she murmured, leaning back against the pillows, ‘it was the biggest you’d ever found – and I’ve lost it.’ Because she was still weak, easy tears filled her eyes.

‘Dun’t bother ya’sen,’ Danny said. ‘I’ll keep looking till I find another just as big. Hurry up and get better, then we can look together, eh?’

Suddenly, the boarding school was all a horrible nightmare. She was back home and all the days of the rest of her life stretched ahead – with Danny.

Soon Kate was allowed downstairs and with each day she grew stronger. Then came the morning her mother appeared dressed in her best costume with a smart hat perched on the top of her hair.

‘I’m off to Lincoln today, Kate, to give that Miss Denham a piece of my mind.’

‘Oh, Mam, do – do you think you ought?’ Kate quailed at the very thought of her mother standing toe to toe with the enormous, overpowering figure of Miss Denham.

Her mother was smiling down at her, but her green eyes were flashing defiance. She touched Kate’s cheek gently with her fingertips. ‘Dun’t you worry, my love. I’ve never been frightened of anyone in me life – I ain’t likely to start now.’

But Kate was in a state of agitation all day. Her poor stepfather spent the whole time trying to pacify the baby and calm Kate. ‘You needn’t worry about your mother,’ he told her, his lop-sided grin crinkling his eyes. ‘She’s a match for anyone.’

‘You don’t know Miss Denham,’ Kate muttered, and her insides quivered at the mere thought of the woman.