It was very dark, in here, wherever it was. A sort of peace. She tried to look around. My neck hurts. For a second, she almost relaxed. Someone will be along to help, I’m sure. Just wait. Be still. And breathe.

Like a curtain going up in a theatre, it snapped back to her.

In a lifeboat. We fell. Ed. Oh God, where is he? The lifeboat swam around her, and Casey kicked out, trying to scramble loose of the safety harness. It gave way sharply.

Ed was a few feet away, still fastened in, and Casey crawled over to him on bruised elbows and knees.

He had hit his head as he fell, she saw. A trickle of blood curled down from his eyebrow. His eyes were closed, head lolling.

‘Ed!’

All the first-aid lessons, those boring hours in a stuffy room, raced through her mind. But none of the careful rules would matter if they didn’t escape right now. Because it would only take seconds for the men to race down through the Beauvallet, and out onto the beach. And then—

Casey tugged Ed hard.

Nothing.

‘Ed,’ Casey whispered urgently in his ear. ‘If you don’t move now, it’s over. They’ll catch us.’

She shook him. Carefully at first, and then with a sudden violence. The lifeboat rocked to and fro with an odd sort of movement.

‘Ed, wake up!’

Ed came to, veering into consciousness like a car skidding on a road. His eyes opened, focused slowly on hers.

‘We have to run,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry. But we have to run right now, Ed.’

His limbs jerked. She dragged at the straps, trying to disentangle him. His movements became grew more coordinated.

‘You run, Casey,’ he managed. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

‘Never,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to leave you.’

‘Casey . . .’

She was yanking at his harness, her fingers tearing at the clasps. And suddenly, he was falling free, struggling towards the hatch.

She scrambled after him, and stared around. Outside the lifeboat, the beach was oddly still, the moonlight a lace frill over strange shapeless shadows. In the darkness, the Beauvallet loomed above.

Casey looked down. The lifeboat had landed in a pool of tidal mud, deep enough to float. The pool had saved them in the fall, but to get away, they would have to jump down into the dark liquid mud. She couldn’t make out how deep it was.

Casey stared around. Which way to go?

A noise came from the ship behind her, and her mind ricocheted through the options, a panicking pinball, thoughts fragmenting as she reached for them.

No way out. It was that endless nightmare, the terrible fear of the hunted. They’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming.

‘We’ll have to jump.’ Ed’s voice broke into her thoughts.

‘Yes.’

Casey heard him take a breath and jump down into the mud.