Sylvia couldn’t picture that thin, pale girl doing manual labour from the age of eight, far away from any kind of family. The most Sylvia had been away from her folks at that age was for one week, on a school camp in Wales. She’d cried herself to sleep three nights in a row she’d missed her mother so much.

‘So what happens now? They won’t go back to Betten?’

Evelyne laughed. ‘No way – well, not unless they’re caught and she’s forced back. They ran away – and about time too, judging by the size of Anna’s belly. I’m surprised no one’s noticed already. If father had found out, I hate to think what he’d have done. There are institutions where they put young unmarried mothers and force them to give up their babies.’ She shook her head. ‘Just another way the patriarchy is trying to keep women in check, punishing us for having sex before marriage just like men do.’

Sylvia stared at the road. Kids of eight being sent to work on a stranger’s farm? A tyrant of a boss who wouldn’t let her go to school? Running away in fear of the consequences of her pregnancy? It didn’t sound like a decent foster care system to her. ‘She must be pretty scared right now,’ she said.

Evelyne shrugged. ‘Apparently they’re in love, and Anna thinks that solves everything,’ she laughed. ‘Daniel’s slightly less naive, but still. He hasn’t got a job, Anna didn’t even finish school, and things aren’t exactly economically rosy in Switzerland at the moment. How are they going to cope? They came here because they knew I wouldn’t send them back, and they can stay with me for now, but it can’t be a permanent arrangement. It’s a tiny one-bed flat and I can’t afford to feed all three of us.’ She shook her head. ‘They’ve got a hard road ahead, that’s for sure.’

Sylvia nodded. No doubt. But it sounded like Anna had had a pretty hard road to get here, too.