clothes on.”
He waited patiently while the children stripped off their pyjamas and in unison, without being told, folded them neatly and put them in the cabinet in the place of their daytime clothes. Muko found that doing something, anything, was better than doing nothing, and from what he could see of the other children, they felt the same. They obeyed with a smooth alacrity that novice monks would have been proud of.
“Now follow me through this door,” ordered the boy in black, before opening a rough, scrubbed wooden door set in the wall.
The children followed calmly, without either pushing or shoving, although it was evident from the set of their shoulders that they were anxious and wary. Some of them even stepped carefully, almost on tiptoes, as if there might be a trapdoor in the floor. None of them, apart from their self-styled leader, had any idea what was in store for them. Nonetheless there were soft whispers of comfort from bolder children who had wrapped an arm round a weaker child.
“It's all right. Everything's going to be ok. You'll see,”
they murmured - as if they could know, which of course they