Heart thudding, Maeve clutched Danny’s hand as if she would never let go. The railway station was a madness of noise - the rattle of bogies and carts, the shouts of porters and newspaper boys - the c***k of hooves on cobbles; all nearly drowned out by the roar of the monstrous engine. There it stood, like a great, panting animal. Maeve felt faint: the station’s wooden buildings had looked nowhere so terrifying from the outside. Great gouts of steam blasted from the engine, and she coughed, breathing in the sulphurous fog as they tried to find the third class.
‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what are we doing here?’ Danny grasped her other hand and turned her to face him. ‘I can’t let you take such risk…come on, let me go in your place!’ He was bumped from behind by a porter’s loaded trolley as
