‘Don’t bother the man, Ellis. Get back to your game.’

‘Charizard,’ Luca called out, earning an eyebrow curl of respect over one small bomber-jacketed shoulder. ‘I was working in Japan when Pokémon GO was a fad,’ he told Carly as she carried a mug across. ‘My ex-boss went crazy for it. Kept running round with her mobile between jump-offs.’

‘You’ve worked all over the world, haven’t you?’ She retreated to the sink.

‘Here and there.’

‘That’s ’mazing.’ The black coffee with two sugars he’d asked for turned out to be very milky and sugar-free, and she now wouldn’t look him in the eye. He wasn’t quite sure what she’d felt when they held hands – maybe, like him, it was as though she’d grabbed a hot grill pan without oven gloves – but it had scared her and he wished it hadn’t. He badly needed allies. It was, as she had said, a ‘well-weird’ day.

‘You and your husband live here at the stud?’

‘I wish! Close. In the village. He’s at college. Wants to be a fitness instructor. Eight years in the army.’

‘That’s impressive.’

‘Yeah, he’s the family hero.’

‘That’s cool.’

‘He’s lush.’ She looked at her watch.

‘You gotta be somewhere?’

‘Meeting a friend in a bit.’ Her fingers drummed the sink. ‘I’ve got a couple more minutes. You want to look around? You can meet Spirit. He’s my favourite.’

‘It can wait.’ He stifled another yawn. ‘I just need to find a bed and crash.’

‘I only know how to make the horses’ beds here.’

‘Good for you.’

‘Lester taught me today. He’s like the main man around here.’

‘Not any more.’

She rolled her big, smudged eyes. ‘You don’t know Lester. I love him already. Tight-fisted bastard, he is, and he thinks a working girl and working mum are the same thing, bless him, but what he doesn’t know about horses ain’t worth knowing, I reckon. He’s gone hunting today. You approve of that, do you?’

The half-closed eyes gave no clues. She had a way of looking askance at you that was challenging as a gangsta moll and disturbingly cute.

Luca, who strongly disapproved of hunting, held his tongue. It didn’t do to bandy your opinions about upon arrival. ‘That’s a great accent. Is it local?’

‘Swindon, in Wiltshire. You know it?’

He shook his head.

‘It’s not that famous. Unless you like roundabouts.’

‘Only magic ones.’

‘Do you believe in magic, then?’

‘I’ve never seen anything I can’t explain yet.’ He battled another flurry of yawns

She glanced at her kids, then back, grinning. ‘Watch this space, mate. Witchcraft’s compulsory round here.’

He closed his eyes, smiling, so beaten up by tiredness and being trapped with the manic redhead that it sounded a very reasonable summary. He’d felt hexed almost from the moment he’d touched down. His hands throbbed warmly.

*

Pax sat at her grandmother’s old kitchen table, nursing a glass of water, shoulders hunched defensively, waiting for the lecture to end. The whole room reeked of whisky from the smashed bottle of the previous night, making it almost impossible to convince Ronnie that she wasn’t spiralling down the same tunnel her father had.