‘What can you possibly have against Auntie?’ Sylvie asked, after a particularly bad one. We were playing doubles tennis on a makeshift court, with sofa cushions marking the lines and a net strung up between two trees. Rupert and Sylvie were playing Freddie and Nicolas. I was ball boy. Roderigo watched from a nearby tree.

‘Yes, poor Auntie,’ Freddie said, grinning through the squares of the net.

‘The bitch gave me a public dressing-down the last time I was at the hotel.’

‘That’s just her way,’ Sylvie said. She was wearing a bottle-green blouse and wide-legged trousers in grey. Her lips were the colour of burgundy and I longed to lick them, to see what they tasted of.

‘She is, as Hamlet said of his mother, A little more than kin, and less than kind.’

‘Actually,’ Nicolas said, inspecting his strings, ‘I believe Hamlet said that of Claudius.’

‘Don’t tell me I’m wrong about my own culture.’

‘Why not?’ Nicolas said. ‘You didn’t write it.’

There was a tautness to the air suddenly.

‘You think you’re better than me, don’t you?’ Rupert said.

‘I don’t think about it.’

‘Well you’re just a Frog,’ Rupert said loudly. ‘A dirty Frog.’

Roderigo sprang out of the tree and leapt at Sylvie, wrapping himself around her shoulders and peeking out from behind her head.

‘Calm down, de Trevelyn,’ Freddie said. ‘It’s not good for you to get too excited in the heat.’

‘You can bloody piss off.’

‘Ru,’ Sylvie said. ‘Why does it matter if Nico’s right about the line?’

‘You’re taking his side too?’

‘Maybe I should ask you to leave,’ Nicolas said.

‘I’m not leaving.’

‘It’s my house, and you’re insulting me.’

‘It’s her house,’ Rupert said, jabbing his thumb at Sylvie. ‘She’s the one with the money.’

I stood up so fast I kicked one of the cushions into the flowerbed. ‘Don’t talk about Sylvie like that.’

Sylvie put her hand out to touch my arm. ‘Boys, please,’ she said. She caught my gaze. ‘Don’t worry about me so much, darling.’

I collected the cushion, my lungs tight.

Freddie looked stony-faced. ‘It’s interesting, de Trevelyn, that you always know the nearest source of money. Sylvie – if he tries to touch you up to pay off his gambling debts, don’t give it to him.’

‘It’s just money,’ she said defiantly.

Rupert grinned. ‘You used to be more fun, Hamilton.’

Freddie shrugged. ‘If you say so.’

Nicolas threw his racquet down. ‘I’m taking Samson for a walk. I suddenly feel the need for more civilised society.’