As her brother drew closer she saw that his nose had been bleeding and his lip was cut. ‘Gus!’ she hissed. ‘You’ve been fighting again!’ He shrugged and made to pass by her. She caught his arm. ‘Meet me outside the chapel door at the end of dinner break.’

‘You there!’ It was the schoolmaster’s voice. ‘Get on and stop talking!’

Gus twitched his arm out of her grasp and walked on.

The girls were dismissed next and May was about to join the line, her stomach grumbling with hunger, when one of the women who had been given the job of supervising the dining hall called out to her.

‘May? Where’ve you been, ducks? You’ve missed your dinner.’

May looked across the room. It was Ruby, who always had a kind word for her. She was small, round-faced and cheerful, and how she had ended up in the workhouse, May did not know. It was not something you asked – not as a child to an adult, anyway. It was not hard to see why some of them were there. There was very little contact between the children and the adults, except for those like Ruby who were trusted to help in the running of the place, but she had seen them wandering the narrow lanes, dishevelled and muttering to themselves. But there were plenty of others, respectable-looking women, who were there for no reason May could understand. She went to Ruby.

‘Miss Bale gave me extra work to do.’

‘Oh, did she?! Yes, she doesn’t like the clever ones. ’Fraid they’ll show her up, I shouldn’t wonder. Sit down there. There’s still some broth in the kitchen.’

She bustled away and came back with a tin bowl full of soup, in which a few pieces of gristly beef floated, and a hunk of bread.

‘Get that inside you, but be quick. I’ll catch it if I’m not back in the kitchen soon.’

‘Thank you, Ruby. I’m famished.’ May ate rapidly, knowing that the dinner break was almost over and afraid that the bell might ring before she had time to swallow it all. The food they were given was wholesome enough but there was never quite enough of it and she could not afford to miss out completely. She just had time to wipe up the last of the gravy with her bread before Ruby whisked the plate away and hurried off to the kitchen.

Outside, she found Gus huddled into a corner of the porch in front of the chapel door.

‘What do you want?’ he demanded fretfully. ‘We’ll catch it if they find us nattering.’