She said that her dad had told her she was a wicked girl, that she had committed a grave sin and would need to pay for it. He said that she had sullied the memory of her mother, and not only that but her mother, he said, would have disowned her if she had seen what he had seen. He told her that things were going to change, that he had given her too much freedom and had paid the price for it.

When she stopped talking her expression changed and she was Isobel once more, but I felt weird. It was like I’d just seen into her soul or something and I didn’t really like what was there.

She seemed to sense this because she stood up and said she had to go. I told her that she still hadn’t asked me what she wanted me to help with. She looked at me and smiled then and said something that took me by surprise. She said that I was the only real friend she had in the world. I found that very hard to believe. Her only friend? I mean, what about school and history of art and all that? Surely she had loads of friends, friends who could talk to her about all that stuff? After all, she was Isobel. Girls like her always have friends. At least, they do in the books I read. In reality I know nothing about friends, only that I’ve never had one.

But it felt good to hear her say it and all the pain I’d felt when she shouted at me the other day fell away. I couldn’t be angry with her. She was my Isobel. And she was my only friend in the world too.

I told her this and then something strange happened. She started to cry. Not just a little weep but great, breathless sobs. She said that she wanted to kill herself, that life without Steve wasn’t worth living. That was hard to hear, that she loved this Steve person so much she was ready to die for him. But all the same, I knew I had to do something, because I couldn’t live in a world without Isobel. I felt for her what she felt for Steve and one day she might just see sense and feel the same way about me, but for now being friends was enough and I had to do what friends do and help her.

So I put my arm round her shoulders and told her that everything was going to be all right, that she just had to tell me how I could help.

She looked up at me. She was still sobbing and it was hard to hear her. But when I finally made out what she was saying, my heart froze. She said that she and Steve had planned to run away together. They were going to meet at the crag the following night – this evening – at 11 p.m. and head off from there. Steve had told her to take some money from the vicar’s safe so they’d have enough to get going.