The hall is flagstones and cold and a staircase that splits left and right like it cannot decide.

There is a great unlit fireplace and a smell of dust and paraffin and a school that has been too cold for too long.

Mila stands in the middle of it with her bag at her feet and her jaw set and does not sit down on the bench provided.

She has been in worse buildings. She has also been in warmer ones and she resents both.