“But, Dad,” Nina said, her blue eyes taking on a brightness that he hadn’t seen for ages, “how can we afford it?”

“That is not, and never again will be, your problem, Ni. As soon as I finish up here with Seascape, I’ll come back down to London and get a job. Maybe not in the City, but I’ll make sure that it pays enough to keep you both at Alleyn’s for as long as you need to be there. But one thing I ask is that you never go off and do something as stupid as that ever again.”

The two girls nodded solemnly, and then slid off their chairs and put their arms around his shoulders. “Thanks, Dad,” Millie said, pressing her wet cheek against his neck. “You’re the best.”

Dan let out a self-deprecating scoff. “No, Millie, I certainly wouldn’t describe myself as that.”

“Dad?” Nina said from the other side.

“Yes, Ni?”

“I think I’m going to be sick again.”

22

Josh was fairly disgruntled with Dan when he heard the outcome of the stern lecture that he had given his sisters. He had always had the notion that Millie and Nina could twist their father around their little fingers, and here was the proof. If he had done exactly as they had and gone off and got drunk to prove that he hated his school, the reaction from his father would have been totally different. Dan had gone soft. He had totally capitulated to them.

However, despite Josh’s opinion on the worth of the talk, it seemed to have had an immediate effect on Millie. That evening, of her own volition, she went into Josh’s bedroom where she spent over an hour talking with him behind closed doors. Finally, they appeared, white-faced but united, a new understanding having been forged between them. And when the two girls left on the train to London the following evening, after a successfully riotous family day-out to Mallaig, when hands had waved like octopus tentacles out of the open-topped Saab, the fondest farewell on the platform at Fort William Station was between the two eldest siblings.

After they had left, Dan tried to ring Jackie on her mobile to tell her about his plans to send the girls back to Alleyn’s, but once more he found himself being patched through to her voicemail service. He felt that what he wanted to say to his wife was too long for a text, so while Josh headed off to meet up with Maria José, he went straight to the Seascape office to send her an e-mail, asking Josh to pick him up in an hour’s time.