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is staying with you.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Of course. You were the one who found him.” The Traveller glanced in Jamie’s direction. “Did he come through the door?” he asked.
    I hesitated. “What do you mean?”
    “You heard me.”
    “He was near the door – but I don’t think he came through it.” Why was I lying to the man? Why was I even having this conversation?
    The Traveller looked at me curiously. I’d never been quite so close to him before and now saw that he was younger than I had thought – about thirty, and that if he had shaved properly and took a bit more care of himself, he might even have been handsome.
    “Are you his friend?” he asked me.
    The question took me aback. “Yes. I suppose so,” I said.
    “Then look after him, Holly. Watch out for him. He’s important.”
    And then he turned and went, leaving me more confused than ever.
    I tried to get to know Jamie a little better in the next couple of weeks but that wasn’t easy. He was allowed to leave the house now. He could mingle with the other villagers. But that meant I saw less of him than I had before and somehow he was never on his own. We were both working so we were apart for most of the day, and he always seemed to come home earlier or later than me so we never got the chance to walk together. If I hadn’t been so stupid, I’d have realized that he was doing it on purpose, that he didn’t want to be alone with me. I was the only person who knew that he was lying … about the amnesia anyway. Jamie was avoiding me because he didn’t want me asking him questions. He didn’t want to tell me the truth.
    And that made me think of the Traveller and the weird conversation we’d had outside the church. The Traveller knew about the door, which meant he must know something about Jamie too. I was half-tempted to run down to the Lady Jane after work and confront him. But I had never been on that old canal boat. I don’t think anyone had. It wasn’t really part of the village … it was outside. And if I did show up, I doubted that the Traveller would make me welcome.
    I saw Jamie every night at supper and I tried to let him know that I was on his side, sitting next to him, being nice to him, whatever. To be honest, supper was never very easy. Once there had been television and newspapers and things you could talk about. Now there was just the village. I still had a PlayStation in my room and how I wished I could plug it in, turn it on and plug myself into it, but with no electricity it was just a useless piece of junk and I don’t even know why I kept it. There was an electrical generator in the storeroom next to the town hall but it was only used in emergencies – like when Dr Robinson got sick and had to be nursed day and night … although Miss Keyland had also been allowed to show it to us in class. The fact was that in my whole life I had only seen an electric light half a dozen times.
    I was nice to Jamie. That’s all. And then one evening as I was coming back from the orchard I saw Mr Christopher – who was the baker – and Mike Dolan leaving the house and I knew, with a sick feeling in my stomach, that something bad had happened. I hurried in and there was George, sitting in a chair with a black eye and a bloody nose, the blood dry now but standing out red-brown against the coating of flour on his skin. Jamie was sitting opposite with a cut on his lip and a torn shirt. Rita was standing over them, her arms crossed and her face filled with rage. John was hovering in a corner, dismayed.
    Jamie and George had been in a fight.
    Fighting was illegal in the village.
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “He started it,” George said. He shot a glance at Jamie.
    “That’s not true,” Jamie said, looking at me.
    “It doesn’t matter which one of you started it,” Rita snapped. “Haven’t you got that into your thick heads? Look at you! You’re both covered in blood. You’ll both be punished.”
    “I didn’t start