He was surprised, of course, but also worried. It wasn’t just that it was the middle of the night—there was something about the way Lotti was walking, slowly, as if she didn’t want to arrive … She stopped by the Sparrowhawk and looked up, and he saw that she had been crying. He held out a hand to help her up onto the roof, and Federico scrambled after her.

“What’s happened?”

Lotti flung herself onto the blanket. “Oh, Ben, it’s horrible!”

In chaotic order, she recounted the events of her day.

“Uncle Hubert was so angry,” she concluded. “Maybe it is better if I go to school, even if they shut me in coal cellars and make me eat worms.” She tried to smile, even as she raised her hand to rub her cheek where her uncle had hit her. Ben, who had been listening with growing anger, loved her for it. If he had an uncle who hit him and threatened to kill his dog, he didn’t think he would be able to smile.

“I will be brave,” Lotti continued, “but I need your help, Ben, to look after Federico. Will you? Because he will literally die if you don’t.”

“Lotti …”

At the tone of Ben’s voice, Lotti shuffled round. For the first time since she arrived it occurred to her that the hour was late, that the air was cold and that rather than wide awake and sitting on the roof, Ben should have been asleep in the cabin.

“Something’s happened to you too.”

Furiously, Ben blinked back tears. If Lotti could smile through her problems, the least he could do was not cry.

“Skinner,” he grunted.

“Constable Skinner?”

“He’s only gone and written to the War Office to ask when Sam’s coming home.”

Lotti gazed at him, as if expecting more. She didn’t understand. How could she, when he had never told her the truth?

“But that’s good, isn’t it?” she asked. “Him being a policeman, maybe you’ll get an answer at last. How long has it been since the last letter from the War Office?”

Ben glared at the canal, glinting in the moonlight.

“There was no letter from the War Office.”

He had tried to sound calm, like lying for weeks to your best friend about something so fundamental was completely normal, but it came out sounding angry.

Lotti gasped. Ben stared harder at the canal.

“No letter?”

“No.”

“You lied to me!” Lotti was outraged. “I didn’t even know you could lie.”