Ella couldn’t see anything at first. She had no idea what they were supposed to be looking for. Some grown-ups probably. Though she had never seen Scarface act like this before.

And then she saw them.

A group of kids striding through the fields, passing alongside the woods. They carried spears and clubs on their shoulders, and were laughing and chatting, one of them swiping the grass with a long blade as he went. They looked like kids just coming back from the sports field after a game of something, carrying their rackets and bats.

Ella wanted to shout out to them. She raised her head, but Scarface clamped his hand over her mouth and squashed her down into the dirt.

What are you doing? she wanted to say. She struggled, but it was no good, he was too strong. She could hardly move at all.

What are you doing? They’re children. Only children. I can go with them!

And then she remembered what Scarface was. What he looked like. They’d try to kill him. When he was just …

What was he?

He wasn’t an enemy, that was for sure. He could have killed her ten times over if he’d wanted. Instead he looked after her. She managed to wriggle round a bit and tap him on the arm. Got his attention, looked into his face, trying not to concentrate on his bad eye, the bloody one with the scars all round it. She tried to show him with her own eyes that it was all right, that she wasn’t going to shout out, that he could remove his big, sweaty, mashed-up hand. He didn’t let go, though, wouldn’t take the risk. He waited until the kids were long gone before freeing her.

‘I wouldn’t have done anything,’ Ella said. ‘Not once I thought about it. I wouldn’t have given you away. You’re safe with me.’ Even as she was saying it, though, she pictured herself up and running through the long grass towards the kids. Wished she was going with them. Scarface wasn’t her friend, he was a monster. A gnarly freak. She couldn’t bear the thought of spending the rest of her life with him. Looking at his ugly face day after day. She started to cry, and he tilted his head like a dog then got up and left her to it. Turning his back on her and staring off into the woods.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ella said, with a big sniff. ‘You must think I’m a baby.’

Scarface gave a little shrug, slipped his backpack off, and then squatted down and waited for Ella to climb on. Halfway home she stopped crying and let her mind go empty and numb. Tried to pretend she’d never even seen the other kids. That life was the same as it had been this morning.