Cal sighed good and loud. “All right. Number nine’s free. S’pose I’d better go up and get some clothes on. Then we can talk trade. No new stock since the weekend, though, so don’t get your hopes up. You won’t be getting any more bananas.”

Mayor Anderson trudged out to the jeep, billy lamp swinging at her side.

Hold on.

She’ll see me when she comes back.

She’ll see me for absolutely certain.

Breathe, Maggie.

Breathe.

I looked back through the glass front door. Cal was gone. The room was dark. Just the dim outline of the desk hunched on the floor.

The desk that was big enough to hide behind.

Mayor Anderson opened the back of the jeep. “C’mon then, wanderer. We’re here. Time to get out.”

Feel your fear, Maggie.

I breathed in the lavender. It smelled just like walking into our larder back home.

I stood up, stepped inside the door, and ducked under the desk.

CHAPTER 32

Clank-clink-clattle! I crashed into a whole pile of billy lamps stacked up on the floor.

Shush, lamps! Shhhh! Please, shhhh!

I steadied them till they fell silent.

Breathe.

Breathe.

A whole pile of billy lamps?

Who has a whole pile of billy lamps behind their desk?

You only get one when you’re born, and you jolly well have to look after it because there isn’t another one coming your way any time soon.

Who would’ve left their lamps here?

“Inside, girl.” Mayor Anderson pushed Una in through the door. I peered round the side of the desk.

Una.

Head hanging, shoulders drooped.

She looked up, ever so slightly.

She caught my eye.

She didn’t jump.

She didn’t smile.

She didn’t do anything at all.

There were two doors, one either side of the desk. They both had tiny oblong windows halfway up. Mayor Anderson had a good grip on Una’s arm with one hand, her lamp and keys in the other. She kicked one of the doors open and bundled Una through.

The door swung shut behind her and sank me into darkness again, except for a little oblong of billy-lamp light coming back through the window.

I crawled out from under the desk. Peered through to where Mayor Anderson was. It was a corridor with lots more doors off it. Mayor Anderson picked out a key from the bunch, and opened a door on the left. She pushed Una inside.

I dodged back down next to the lamps.

Mayor Anderson came back in. She dropped the keys on top of the desk and sat on it. It creaked. I held my breath.

She huffed.

She tapped her fingers on the desk.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Her billy lamp lit up the wall behind. Chifferton Constabulary, said the words across the top. Constabulary? Was this an old police station?

The lamplight shone on the curling ancient posters underneath.