'Get me out of this,' I pleaded.

'This is some other woman.'

'She was good-looking,' said somebody.

'Perhaps even ugly.

Or merely unusual.

You must have been doing something right.'

'Who are you?'

'I don't think you can keep up the pretence much longer,' said Miss Stump.

'What have you been doing all this time?'

'Don't be rude,' said a voice from the shadows.

I spun to find myself face to face with the Lady in Blue.

'Ah,' she said, looking pleasantly surprised.

'I am glad you have accepted me.

I am told this is the one person you do not expect to see again.'

'I don't know about that,' said Miss Stump.

'It seems a lot of people have been telling me that recently.'

'That is because they are usually trying to get you out of my sight.'

'But-'

'We have said enough.'

The Lady's eyes narrowed.

'Although we must concede that you are a fine actress, Miss Truss.

To see the Duchess of Klausenberger, the Duchess of Youneverland, and Lady Alissia Motivated to start a riot, on my account ... Well, that is the kind of thing that should not happen in our world.'

'But it happened,' I said.

'What were you doing there?'

'You will find out when we get out of here,' said the Lady in Blue.

'Somewhere ...' She indicated the grave.

'Somewhere I think you will be most interested.'

For the first time since I had met her, her face grew expressionless.

It was as if her whole expression had frozen.

'You must understand,' she said.

'I have been waiting for this moment.

It is part of my original plan.'

'And what was that?'

said Miss Stump, her accent thicker than ever.

'To see how you would do with this situation,' said the Lady in Blue.

'You, a relative newcomer to our world, do you know what this country is like?'

'I know about the peacocks, the black hounds, and the strawberries,' I said.

'But you also know about the Jews and the rats and the mountains and the witches ...'

'I know,' said the Lady in Blue.

'I know what people think about you.

And what they want to do to you.

I've watched you for three years, Alexandra Truss.

I've watched you with your ugly face and your stupid jokes.

I've watched you suffer and try and help your people, and have felt sorry for you, and I have come to the conclusion that you are not just another worthless tramp, only without the charm, but something worse: a dirty, ignorant, repulsive tramp.'

I stared at her, speechless.

She waited.

I swallowed.

'You are not human,' she said.

'I have known that for years.

And I think you will find, Alexandra, that once you know something, it is not something that you forget easily.

You don't even remember much of it.'

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

'I am, I am ...

I am part of another world.

I have lived there for more than ten years now.

I have come home to change the world.'

She stopped, as if expecting my astonishment.

'You didn't understand.

You were too young.

You were too vulnerable.

My parents sent me over there, into the world of work, where I was separated from the life that I was born into.

I was taught the trade of being a spy.

There were no girls my age in my tiny society, so I had to pretend to be male.'

Her lip quivered.

'I am part of another world,' she repeated, more quietly.

'I'm sorry,' I said.

'For what it's worth, it's very nice to meet you.

Why don't you just get us out of here?'

The Lady in Blue chuckled.

'I'm afraid I cannot do that,' she said.

'You see, I am part of another world.

I am a true human.

A bit old, a bit craggy, perhaps, and fairly incontinent ...' She paused, and leaned closer.

'But there are some things I can do, however.'

She smiled.

'I can make it seem that you are meeting me for the first time.'

She reached into her pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper, then pushed it across to me.

I stared at it.

It was of a fairly ordinary size, a square with words and numbers scrawled all over it.

I picked it up.

The words were written in a capital 'O' hand.

It said:

I HAD TO TAKE THIS PIECE OF COLD CLAM TOMORROW.

I GUESS IT'S A GOOD THING I DID.

THEY TOLD ME NOT TO OPEN IT UNTIL LATER TODAY.

THE POPE'S CERTAINLY SPEAKING TO ME NOW.

Miss Abigail Smart, better known as Alex Truss, fished the article out of her pocket and passed it to me.

I stared at it, my mind racing.

I looked at the four girls around me, their blank stares seeming to mock me.

I looked at the silence around me, at the bars, at the white walls.

And I glanced up at the clock.

'What's it all about?'

I asked.

'What do you mean?'

said the Lady in Blue.

'You know exactly what it's about,' I snapped.

'This has all been in the papers.'

The Lady in Blue laughed.

'Oh, Alex.

Alex, listen.

This is no ordinary newspaper.

No ordinary paper.

This is the newspaper of the Secret Society of the Guardians.

This is the newspaper of the Guardians of the Underworld, and you know what that means, don't you?'

I looked down at the article again.

It was written in a strange code, and although I could see the writing clearly enough, I could not make out the letters themselves.

'How are we ever going to figure this out?'

said Miss Kirk.

I opened my mouth to speak.

'It is not that I have forgotten,' the Lady in Blue said.

'It is that I have forgotten everything I did learn, everything I knew.

I have forgotten everything ...

'You must look at this,' she added, taking the newspaper out of my hands.

'Look at the headlines.

Look at the picture.

This is not a newspaper of the ordinary world.

This is the newspaper of the world we know but do not know.'

She pointed to one of the lines.

'This is a story about an international band of thieves known as the Triton Thieves.

This is a picture of them robbing an airline.

And this is a quote from one of their number.'

'The Lady in Blue,' I said.

'What about the Lady in Blue?'

'Who is that?'

said the Lady in Blue.

'A colleague of mine,' I said.

'She's a writer, Miss Kirk.'

'What does she look like?'

The Lady in Blue sighed.

'She is the most beautiful woman I have ever met, Alex,' she said.

'She is an artist, a poet, a philosopher, a playwright, a philanthropist.

She is a girl of great wisdom and great learning, and she has written, in the most delightful and generous way, a book about us.

I was very moved by the elegance and generosity of her words.'

She leaned closer and patted me on the arm.

'Alex,' she said, 'I love you.'

'You should have said so when you had the chance,' I said.

'I'll be going.'

She laughed.

'Go,' she said.

'Go and open that article.

You will see.'

I turned to look at it.

A small circle was engraved on the cover, and a message underneath in the same strange script:

SPELL IT OUT FOR ME.

A few hours later, the headline of the Times read:

HOW AN INTERNATIONAL BAND OF THIEVES HID ESCAPED JAIL

Which was followed by the headline in the News of the World:

SECRET SOCIETY OF GUARDIANS CONFIRMS ALLEGED TRITON THIEVES

A few pages below this, the cover of the Metro read:

GIRL DIES AFTER MURDER ATTACK.

Then, under the section for sport, were these paragraphs:

International gang of women arrested for killing young man

IN THE MOONBALL SERIES

They didn't say anything about it being about me, but there it was.

'Where can I find the Metro?'

I asked.

The Lady in Blue smiled.

'A very short walk from here, in the Portman Building.

Here are the keys to the apartment.'

I took the keys and the newspaper, and after a while I walked through Central London.

It wasn't long before I was at the Portman Building.

It was not a grand place to live in - it was the sort of place that you would see, in a film, where one of the police officers lived when he was off duty - a series of small, cheaply furnished flats, each one clearly intended for a single occupant.

I took the lift to the top, and found the door at the far end.

I knocked.

A voice inside asked who it was, and after a while I was told to come in.

The Portman Building had several bedrooms, so I took the one nearest the door.

It had a bed, a desk, and a bedside cabinet.

There was a chest of drawers, and some photos on the wall.

They were of children, not much older than I was when I came to the Lady in Blue's school.

The Lady in Blue was standing by the bed.

She took the newspaper from me.

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'I'm sorry,' I said.

'I was looking for the Metro.

I've read about the Triton Thieves.

I wanted to read about them.

'It's all in the article,' she said.

'It's the same article that I gave you.

You're not going to get any more from me.

Go and read it.

It's all in there.

I'll see you tomorrow.

You have the keys?'

I nodded.

'Yes.

Thank you.'

I went back down the stairs and left the building.

It was raining, and the air was cold.

I walked for a while, until I found a pub.

I sat down at the bar and ordered a pint of Guinness.

I looked at the man behind the bar.

He was a big man, with a broad, hairy chest.

He was wearing a green apron, and a green hat with a black feather in it.

He looked like he had just stepped out of a hunting lodge.

I felt that I should say something to him.

'Are you a hunter?'

I asked.

'A what?'

'A hunter,' I said.

'Like a bear or a lion?'

'A what?'

'A hunter,' I said.

'Like a bear or a lion.'

'A hunter?

'I said.

'Like a bear or a lion.'

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'It's just a joke,' I said.

'What's a lion?'

'It's a big cat,' I said.

'Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat?'

'Yes.'

'A big cat.

Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat.'

'Yes.

Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat.'

'Yes.

Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat.'

'Yes.

Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat.'

'Yes.

Like a lion.

Do you know what a lion is?'

'A big cat.'

'