Anna’s right cheek was so swollen from Maisie’s blow that she couldn’t open the eye above it. Her hair had blood encrusted in it and her bottom lip was bleeding because she had inadvertently bitten it when she’d fallen to the floor. But she had never been so happy in her whole life.
As she came to slowly on the hard, concrete bed, she opened her eyes and sat up to take in her surroundings, then she smiled to herself, ignoring the pain as she did so. She’d made it. She was in Solitary. That one thought made her feel more alive than she could remember feeling before. And powerful. She felt like she could do anything. With Peter, she was invincible.
Looking around to make sure that she was alone, she called out excitedly, her voice soft at first then louder. ‘Peter, I’m here. Peter!’
‘Anna! You did it! I hoped it was you when I heard them bring someone in, but I didn’t dare say anything. What did you do? How did you get them to send you down here?’ His voice was coming from the wall behind her, which meant that she was in the cell next to him, she realised to her relief.
‘I challenged Mr Sargent,’ she said proudly, smiling at the memory of his red face pulsating with shock at her words. ‘And then I was rude to a Domestic.’
She heard Peter laugh, and it made her glow with pride.
‘So when do we leave?’ she asked nervously.
‘Tonight,’ Peter said, without hesitation. ‘Solitary checks are at about midnight and Mrs Pincent said 4 a.m. was when she’d come for me, didn’t she?’
Anna made a muffled noise that meant yes. Neither of them particularly wanted to think about Mrs Pincent, or what she was coming back to do.
‘So we leave here at two o’clock and go through the tunnel,’ Peter continued. ‘That way everyone will be asleep. The tunnel comes out in the village, and we need to get as far away as we can before it gets light because the Catchers will be sent out as soon as they realise we’ve gone. Then we’ll find somewhere to hide and tomorrow night we’ll start making our way to London.’
Anna smiled, but her heart was pounding in her chest. She couldn’t believe they were actually going to escape from Grange Hall. All the windows and doors were alarmed, and there were floodlights which stretched from the building to the gated walls surrounding it. Cameras were fixed to the perimeter walls as an added deterrent. The Catchers always got you in the end, Mrs Pincent said. And when they did, you’d hate your parents even more for having you.
‘We’ll be fine, Anna, I promise,’ Peter said, as if sensing her fear. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘I’m not worried,’ Anna said quickly, trying to convince herself as much as anything. The darkness and musty smell of the cell was beginning to get to her, bringing back memories of her last visit to Solitary. She’d been afraid then, imagining that ghosts and ghouls lived down in the cellars, that Mrs Pincent and the others might forget about her and leave her there to die. There had been noises too, late at night when she couldn’t sleep. Footsteps, things that sounded like voices but more strangled. Sounds that had filled Anna with such terror that she would have done anything to get out, to never have to come back.
But this time she was here for a reason, she told herself. This time she was here on her own terms.
She looked up at the wall that stood between her cell and Peter’s. At the top of it, as with all the other cells in Solitary, there was a gap, about a metre wide and three quarters of a metre high. These holes were the only source of ventilation in the whole of the basement – Mr Sargent had told them so once when Patrick had been sent down there for about the fifth time. Mr Sargent had said that there wasn’t much air at all in Solitary. He’d said that if there were more than three Surpluses down there at once, they’d probably run out of air in a few days. The holes were the only thing that kept you alive down in Solitary, Mr Sargent had told them. The hole was also the only way for Anna to get into Peter’s cell.
She stood up on the concrete bed to get a closer look, then swallowed uncomfortably. It had seemed like such a great idea when Peter had suggested it, but now she wasn’t so sure. The gap was big enough for her to get through, certainly. But she had to get up there first. Standing on the bed, she found that she could reach the bottom of the gap if she went on to her tiptoes. But reaching wasn’t enough. She had to be able to get through it.
‘The gap,’ she called out tentatively. ‘The thing is, I’m not sure I can get up there,’ she said, trying to keep her voice light. ‘Even if I stand on the bed, I won’t be able to get high enough.’
‘Of course you can,’ Peter said immediately. ‘If you get hold of the bottom, you can pull yourself through. I tried it myself. Look . . .’
Anna looked up, and sure enough, Peter’s face appeared at the gap. Her face lit up and she smiled.
‘You look awful,’ he said, and Anna immediately turned her face away, embarrassed by her swollen eye and lip.
‘Who did that to you?’ Peter asked angrily. ‘Tell me who did it.’
Anna shrugged. ‘No one. I mean, it doesn’t matter.’
‘It matters to me.’
Anna looked up at Peter curiously.
No one had ever wanted to protect her before. When Mrs Pincent had punished her, sometimes she said it was to ‘protect Anna from herself’, but that wasn’t the same thing at all.
‘OK, I’m going to do it,’ she said purposefully and stood up again, reaching as high as she could and using her legs to try and scrabble up the wall. She was going to prove herself worthy of Peter. She was going to get up that wall if it took every bit of strength in her body.
But it was no use. Her arm muscles may have been strong enough for laundry, but they simply weren’t strong enough to lift her entire weight, and the walls were too flat for her feet to climb up.
After a few minutes of concerted effort, Anna fell back on the hard bed, red-faced.
‘I can’t get up there, Peter,’ she said hotly.
But when she looked up, Peter was at the top of her wall again, and he was grinning. Then he pushed himself through the gap and a second later, he was next to her on the bed. He pulled her to her feet again.
‘Put your foot in there,’ he said quickly, meshing his hands together to create a foothold. She stared at him.
‘Come on, just put your foot on my hands and I’ll give you a leg up,’ he said, looking at her encouragingly.
Anna’s face lit up, and she did as he said. He held her up high as she reached for the gap, and continued to hold her until she had managed to squirm right up the wall, even though she could feel that he was shaking by the end. Then, like a monkey, he scrambled up the wall himself, through the gap, and helped her down the other side.
‘See? Easy,’ he said, a satisfied grin on his face. ‘Any other problems you want to freak out about before we go?’
Anna shook her head and blushed, embarrassed at how quickly she’d given up. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as invincible as she’d thought.
‘No more problems,’ she said gratefully. ‘And thanks, Peter. I . . . well, thanks.’
Peter shrugged. ‘I said I’d get you out, didn’t I? So, you got any food on you?’
Anna nodded happily and took out the Cornish pasty she’d made that morning.
‘Did you really come here just to get me?’ she asked curiously as she watched Peter eat. ‘I mean, did you really let the Catchers find you just for that?’
Peter caught her eye and shrugged again. ‘Well, I certainly didn’t come here for the grub,’ he said, his eyes twinkling slightly. Then he put the pasty down on the floor in front of him.
‘I . . . I wanted to do my bit for the Underground Movement. Do my bit to help your parents,’ he said seriously. Then he swallowed, and looked at her with the darting eyes that she knew so well. ‘But I wanted to find you for me, too . . .’
Anna looked at him silently, and he bit his lip, then looked down at the floor.
‘I never had any friends, Anna,’ he said a few moments later, his voice smaller than it had been. ‘Never had parents, or anyone who . . . well, I didn’t ever have anyone. And your parents used to talk about you, and how if you weren’t in Grange Hall, we’d be friends. You know. And I used to think about that a lot, about you being free, and about us going places, doing things. So that’s why I came. I felt like we knew each other. Before we met, I mean.’
He swallowed again, and Anna found her eyes drawn to him, to her friend Peter who, for the first time since she’d met him, wasn’t looking defiant or angry, but vulnerable and lost.
‘And now?’ she asked, her voice almost a whisper. ‘Was I like you thought I’d be?’
‘I think so,’ Peter said, nodding, and his eyes met hers. They were shining, Anna noticed.
‘And do you like me?’ she asked hesitantly. ‘The real me, I mean.’
Peter nodded again slowly. ‘I suppose,’ he said quietly, attempting a little smile.
Then he took a deep breath and looked down sheepishly.
‘I like you quite a lot, actually,’ he whispered, his voice so fragile that it barely sounded like Peter. And as soon as the words had left his mouth, he turned away, focusing all his attention on a loose thread hanging from one of the sleeves of his overalls.
Anna stared at him, and for a second she felt like the whole world had stood still, and she had goose-bumps all over her.
Then Peter shrugged and started eating again, and everything suddenly went back to normal. Although not quite normal, because Anna now knew that, whatever happened, she would follow Peter anywhere. And that, she knew, could be her salvation – but it could also get her into a whole lot of trouble.