Jackson was chewing on one. She tried to pull it away and he wailed furiously.

‘Give that back to me, you—’

‘Everything all right?’ The plummy voice.

Carly was straight on the defensive. ‘I was taking his nappy to the bin. He pulled them out.’

‘Oh dear.’ Pax stooped beside her to help clear them. ‘Lester’s going to be furious with me. He keeps all sorts of old – oh!’

‘Everything all right?’ Carly watched her study a shred of paper, the luminous eyes stretched wide.

Pax didn’t respond or move, breath stilled as she read. Whatever was in the letters was a bone-deep shock.

Carly’s hands were raw with the heat that was now stealing up her body. ‘These were already ripped like this when Jackson found them!’ she flashed.

Pax had turned her face away. ‘Please would you mind leaving me alone?’

‘It’s not his fault.’

‘I’d like you to go right now.’

17

The kids had been playing in the hay a long time; Kes’s eyes were turning mouse red, Ellis’s ’Splorer Stick was coated with seeds, and both girls were runny-nosed with cold, their baby brothers growly and restless. The light was fading. Ronnie had just clattered off down the drive on a horse with a cheery goodbye, stirrups showjumper short, no high-vis on whatsoever.

Bridge hadn’t been able of get much out of Carly beyond a gruff summary that Pax had got the hump over some old letters and had been very rude.

‘We should go and check she’s okay,’ she said after Pax had failed to reappear for ten minutes.

‘Be my guest.’ Carly was perched high in the hay to get a signal, adding filters and stickers to the pictures she’d just taken of her kids to post onto her Facebook and Instagram feeds.

‘Did you see who the letters were from?’

‘No idea.’ Easily offended, accustomed to having a million things to do, Carly wasn’t one for hanging around. ‘Perhaps I should be helping Luca out like Ronnie suggested.’

‘She might be really upset.’

‘Still bloody rude when you’ve got guests,’ Carly complained, taking a picture of Bridge in the gloom to add to her news story. ‘I thought we were all getting a guided tour and going wassocking.’

‘Wassailing. Don’t tag me on that. Aleš doesn’t know I’m here.’

‘What’s it to him if you are?’

‘I like to maintain an air of mystery.’ After last night’s row, Bridge wanted the possessive sod to stew. She’d turned off her own phone and needed her timelines to stay clean too. Unlike Carly and her personal propaganda army, Bridge kept family life off screen. On principle, she and Aleš never posted pictures of their children, home, each other or their food. Instead, Bridge curated dark-humoured video funnies, GIFs and memes, spreading lovehearts and scream-faces wherever she went, while Aleš shared pictures of plant machinery and roof trusses. Both secretly checked one another’s feeds and friends on a regular basis.

‘I could murder for a cup of tea,’ Carly said, shivering. ‘You know, I might as well be helping Luca out right now.’