‘Well,’ Gilly had said, somehow stopping herself from shouting ‘I KNEW IT!’ at the top of her lungs. ‘It’s about time.’

‘Not another word,’ Edie warned her.

‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ Gilly had said.

An unexpected upside to their new relationship was that Edie had given up bugging Gilly about her college application. In fact, she seemed to have some other project on the go that had required her to make several mysterious unexplained day-trips. Whatever she was up to, Edie had seemed distinctly cheerful after each return, and as long as she still wanted her around and wasn’t going on about college anymore, that was fine by Gilly.

Which was why Gilly was taken by surprise when, as she put away the last layer of the new print into the drying cabinet, Edie knocked at the print room door.

‘Can I come in?’

‘Er – sure,’ Gilly called. ‘Just… give me a sec…’ She rolled down the cover of the drying rack to hide the prints from view. ‘Okay!’

Gilly carried the block to the sink for cleaning as Edie came in. When she turned around, the artist was standing at the workbench, on which she had spread two sheets of paper that looked suspiciously official and, moreover, as if they needed filling in. Gilly’s stomach dropped.

‘What’s that?’

‘Something I want to talk to you about.’

‘Edie,’ Gilly said, over the sound of the running tap, ‘I thought we were past this? I told you, I’ll sit the Highers, but I’m not going to college.’

‘These aren’t for college.’

Gilly turned off the tap and reached for a towel as she turned around, frowning. ‘What are they, then?’

Edie made a slight face, looking away from her and out at the garden. There was a pause. ‘I know why you didn’t fill in the college application.’

‘What do you mean?’

Edie looked back at her. ‘I know you’re only fifteen, Gilly. You couldn’t sign the paperwork because you’re not old enough.’

Gilly’s heart juddered. ‘What—’ she began, but her throat had closed up so much that the words came out like a rasp and she had to start over. She looked at the papers with a gathering sense of dread. ‘What have you done?’

‘I went to find out where you’re supposed to be.’

Gilly looked instinctively at the back door, the one that led out into the garden. She could make a run for it, she thought, she could get away, right now. Except that all her stuff was upstairs, including the jacket Ezra had given her and her wallet, and this was why you didn’t let yourself get too comfortable, this was why…

‘Are they coming for me?’ Gilly asked, her voice still hoarse.

‘Are who coming for you?’

‘Social Services. If they know where I am they’ll take me back into care.’

‘They’re not going to do that, Gilly,’ Edie said calmly.

‘They will,’ Gilly said, horrified to find that she was right on the verge of tears. She’d thought she was actually getting somewhere. She’d thought she was going to have a life. Just how stupid was she? ‘I’m underage. They’ll make me go into a home or a hostel. Plus I stole money from the last foster home I was in when I ran away. Fifty quid. They’ll probably want the police involved for that.’