For one confused moment, Dr Holt pulled the wheel one way, and me another. That was all the time it took for a dark shape to loom up in front of us on the road, and then Dr Holt was swearing and braking, but the road was too icy to stop, and I saw a white startled face in the headlights of the jeep, and I knew what was going to happen, and there was nothing we could do about it.

Suzi

Suzi

I didn’t understand what was happening. I had run across the lane – icy cold on my bare feet, like tiny needles stabbing me – and gone straight to Nora’s, even though the house was cold and dark. Even though I was likely in danger from her too. There was simply nowhere else to run, so I had to hope maybe she was hiding inside with the lights off. I was screaming, my voice whipped away by the wind.

‘Nora! Please help – help me!’ Was it mad to think she’d been helping me all along – advising me to leave Nick, telling me my rights? That she hadn’t wished me ill at all?

Nothing. She wasn’t there, and I could hear Nick blundering across the road to me, cursing and screaming. Terrible words, things I’d never heard come from his mouth before.

I knew it was no good. He would drag me back, put me in the cellar, keep me there until I had the baby. Maybe he’d tell the hospital we’d moved away, force me to give birth down there alone. I wondered how long it would be before anyone came to look for me. Months? Years, if he was smart. And I knew he was smart. He’d had me fooled for so long. All this went through my head in seconds, and then I saw the lights of the car.

It was swerving, going too fast for the narrow icy lane. The thing Nick had always warned me about, to look both ways before crossing. It was driving straight at him. I’d like to think I shouted to him to look out, but I couldn’t say if I did. Instead, I watched the car – a large jeep – plough right into him, tossing him off the road into the ditch like a child’s toy.

The jeep stopped, jackknifed across the road, and someone got out. Nora. But this wasn’t her car. I didn’t know whose it was, but it looked familiar. Then I saw the driver get down, run to where Nick was, throwing off a thick winter coat to free his arms. I knew that stocky, capable build. It was Dr Holt. He bent over Nick, pummelling on his chest, while Nora and I stood frozen, watching.

‘He’s gone.’