It was a while before the Mended girl could even speak. Tig sat with her warily for several minutes while the girl’s breathing slowly grew less noisy and her lips took on a healthier tone, though her face was covered with a sheen of sweat. Gradually, Tig’s wariness eased. This girl might be Mended, but she was clearly in no condition to carry out Ainderby Myers’ evil bidding, whatever that might be.

‘Where’s Herc?’ she asked. Then, at the girl’s blank look, ‘My little brother. Did you see him on your way up? We were outside the Mending House and now I can’t find him and I’m afraid he . . . he might be . . .’

The girl shook her head, tried to speak, failed.

‘It’s a big hill,’ Tig acknowledged. ‘If you’re not used to it.’

‘My lungs,’ Ashna finally managed. ‘They’re not good. It’s the cotton dust. I haven’t seen your brother, I’m sorry. From what you’ve said, one of the guards has probably captured him. He will be in the Mending House by now.’

Oh, Herc. Why would he never, ever listen to her? She should have known he wouldn’t, though – it was her job to look after him, no matter how difficult he made it. And she’d failed. Again.

Slowly, with pauses to catch her breath, Ashna told Tig who she was, and how she and Stef had come up with a plan to escape with the Mended, but that Myers had sent her up here before they could complete it.

Tig felt a hot wave of shame and despair overtake her. Of course Stef would have tried to help the others. Of course he wouldn’t just plan to slip out on his own, like she would have. She had blamed herself for pushing him to go down to St Cod’s in the first place, had felt guilty because he wasn’t as strong as her. Now she saw that it hadn’t been weakness on his part, but bravery, and she should instead be blaming herself for underestimating him.

If she hadn’t insisted on her own stupid plans, Ainderby Myers would probably have stayed in his quarters, eaten the drugged eggs, and fallen asleep like he was supposed to. And right now everyone, including her brother, would be safe. It was unbearable.

Ashna sighed, frustrated. ‘Myers has such a hold over the Mended. It’s more than just hard work and not enough gruel – they fear him. As long as he’s with them, they won’t have the will to stand up for themselves. I’m afraid that on his own, Stef won’t be able to, either . . .’

Tig swallowed. ‘Well, he’s not on his own anymore. I’ve just gone and got my brand-new friends Mended. And Herc too, by the looks of it.’ She felt tears prick at her eyes but dashed them away angrily. Crying was a luxury she didn’t deserve.

‘Go on, get it all out,’ said Arfur, appearing at the kitchen door. ‘Have a good old blub. It’s good for you. I did tell you, though. I mean, I literally said “Don’t go down there”—’

‘Oh, shut up, Arfur. Why are you even still here?’ Tig snapped.

‘Careful,’ Ashna muttered. ‘I’ve seen this guy at the Mending House before. He’s a friend of Myers.’

Tig smashed her hand on the table so hard it hurt. ‘I knew it! You filthy toad, Arfur – you gave us away, didn’t you? Oh, I was such a mug to trust you!’

Arfur looked taken aback.

‘No, I . . . I didn’t tell him nuffink. All I ever do is tip him off about rich places that have too much stuff, so he can send someone to take it off their hands.’

Ashna was shaking her head at him disbelievingly. ‘It’s more than that. I heard what you said to him. You owe him your life.’

Tig stood over him, hands on hips, her expression telling him he had precisely one second to tell the truth.

Arfur made a face like he was trying to squeeze a lemon between his teeth.

‘OK, OK. When I told you how he got Mended, way back . . . I forgot to mention something.

It was me that did the apple-stealing what he got accused of.

We was friends as kids, but they thought it was him and I . . . I didn’t want to be Mended so I didn’t . . .’ He trailed off.

‘You let him take the blame,’ Tig said. ‘You coward.’

Arfur looked miserable. ‘I know. Always have been.’

‘So that’s why you work for him?’ Ashna asked. ‘You feel guilty?’

Tig doubted the con man even knew what the word meant, so was astonished when he nodded. ‘When he finally got out, he found me. Thought he was gonna kill me, but instead he made me forge some documents for him to start a new life, get a new job far away. Made me go with him.’

‘You got him the Mending House job?’ asked Tig incredulously.

‘Not exactly. I . . . helped,’ he said. ‘He didn’t want much for a while after that, and I met Maisie, got married, started to make a life for meself. But then he got greedier, started asking me to do things for him. Maisie didn’t like that. But what could I do?’

‘Say no?’ suggested Tig brutally.

‘This is Ainderby Myers we’re talking about. He can make anyone’s life impossible. Besides, it don’t look like your friends find it easy to say no to you, do they?’

Tig was stung into silence, her cheeks hot.

‘All right,’ said Ashna, sensing it would be helpful to move on. ‘So you were trying to make it up to him.’

‘Except what I come to realize is, see, I can never make it right, and he knows it. That’s why I . . . Well, in the end I sent them matrons that newspaper article, anonymous like. They never knew who it came from.’

Tig gasped. ‘You did?’

‘Yeah. I thought they’d snitch on him to DEATH and he’d get caught. Except they didn’t, did they? I was waiting and waiting, thinking why’s nothing happening – I didn’t know then that the stupid whatsits had gone and blackmailed him with it. When I found out they was both gone, and he didn’t even know yet, I was gonna try and slip in here and take back the evidence, get him some other way. But then I thought, hold your horses, Arfur, they’ve got a DEATH inspector coming. Now those inspectors are thorough, I said to meself, bound to come across that article with snooping through all the nooks and crannies like they do. And who better to find it? Job done. Except it weren’t a DEATH inspector what turned up, it was Snepp. And then you went and blew all of our covers by sending your mate down there. You lot are in real danger now, because I’ve gone and messed things up.’

‘Why didn’t you just show that article to DEATH yourself?’

He looked shamefaced. ‘Wanted to keep my name out of it. Since that day when I nicked the apple and lied about it, I’ve been waiting for the law to catch me up. I done a lot worse since then, for his sake, to make up for it. I don’t want them looking too closely at me.’ He closed his eyes as though in pain. ‘It’s my fault he’s the way he is, isn’t it? I’m just as bad. Worse, maybe. I spent so long trying to do the right thing by him, and then do the right thing by you lot too, but I got it all wrong. Maisie used to say I’d picked the wrong friend, but the truth is I never had any.’

Tig found, much to her surprise, that despite her anger, she felt pity for Arfur. ‘He doesn’t own you, you know,’ she told him quietly. Her next sentence felt wrenched out of her. ‘You did something terrible, but what happened afterwards . . . the way he is now . . . that’s down to him. Not you.’

Arfur put his head in his hands. ‘Thing is, he’s so powerful now, no one can do a thing about him. Except DEATH, of course, and they love ’im.’

Ashna nodded slowly. ‘There are rumours about the Mending House, I’m sure. But DEATH can overlook rumours.’ Then she stopped, and a smile began to creep across her face. ‘So . . . we’ll just have to do something that’s impossible to ignore.’