The Declaration

then she sighed.
    ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen,’ she said softly, ‘but I want you to remember this. We knew what we were doing when we had you, and we will gladly suffer the consequences. The important thing is that you are safe, and that Ben is safe and Peter too. That’s all that really matters. We’re protected here – there are people all over London, all over the country, who think we’re doing the right thing and who also have children, who are going to help us. They helped us before, when we got out of prison. So I don’t want you to worry. And I don’t want you to think that you’ve put us in danger either. We put ourselves in danger, and because of us you spent many years in Grange Hall, for which we will never forgive ourselves. But you’re safe now. Because of Peter, you’re back home. And home is exactly where you’re going to stay.’
    Anna nodded silently. She had so many questions, about Longevity drugs, about Opting Out, about Barney and Pip and the Catchers and Grange Hall and Peter. But she didn’t know how to ask them without blurting them all out at once and sounding like a Pending who had finally been allowed to ask Mr Sargent a question and didn’t know when to stop. So instead, she continued to eat, snatching little looks at Peter every so often, and feeling a huge wave of happiness wash over her when he caught her eye and grinned, then put his arm around her briefly to give her a squeeze.
    ‘This is your home, Anna Covey,’ he whispered. ‘I told you it was worth it, didn’t I?’
    Anna smiled at him and nodded. But as she did so, the phone rang, and her parents looked at each other, their faces tense.
    Her father picked it up, and he smiled and said, ‘Pip,’ and then his expression changed and a deep line appeared between his eyes. He nodded a few times, then said, ‘Thanks,’ and put the phone down.
    ‘They’re coming to Bloomsbury,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘They got a tip-off. It was the House Matron, apparently. But how could she have known? Nobody knows. Nobody at all.’
    He sat down and looked at Anna’s mother, who shrugged helplessly.
    ‘Peter, you didn’t tell anyone anything, did you?’
    ‘Of course not,’ Peter said hotly. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
    ‘Well, then, I just don’t know,’ her father said, staring at the wall behind Anna. ‘I don’t know at all.’
    Anna looked at him, terror rushing through her veins at the mention of Mrs Pincent and the Catchers. And then, suddenly, she knew how they’d found her. Knew that her First Sin had caught up with her, that her fate had been sealed the first time she broke the rules of Grange Hall, and that her transgressions were going to be the undoing not just of herself, but of everyone around her.
    ‘It’s my fault. I wrote a journal,’ she said, her voice barely audible. ‘About things that happened. Things that Peter told me. It was hidden in Female Bathroom 2, and then I put it in my pocket to escape, but when I got to Mrs Sharpe’s it wasn’t there.’
    She swallowed uncomfortably. ‘It might have fallen out in the tunnel. Or somewhere else. I . . . I’m not sure.’
    Peter stared at her, and Anna felt her heart begin to beat faster as she saw her parents’ expressions change, saw the muscles around their eyes and mouths tense. And then she found her own muscles tensing, and she braced herself, waiting to be beaten.

Chapter Twenty-three
    Margaret Pincent sat at her desk, holding Anna’s pink journal in her hand and smirking. The girl really was priceless, she thought to herself. It was as if she wanted to be found.
    Well, whether she wanted to or not, she’d be back here soon enough, she thought, pleased with herself. The Catchers had been delighted with her suggestion that they hotfoot it to Bloomsbury. Had assured her that the Surpluses would be back in Grange Hall within twenty-four hours. It was the boy she really wanted to get hold of, though. And the parents. How dare they? How dare they think they could have what no one else could?
    Of course, the real fault lay outside of Grange Hall, Margaret thought irritably. How could she not have known there was a tunnel, leading from the basement – the very place she sent Surpluses to be secure and out of the way? Why was she not told about it before? It was just so typical of the Authorities, thinking that they didn’t need to tell her anything. Thinking she wasn’t important enough.
    Well, she’d show them.