‘I’m sorry. My mum went back to the Ukraine and left me and Kirsty here, so she can’t have cared much about us.’

‘I … I’m just saying it can’t have been that easy for her. They’re quite anti-outsider here at the best of times – and outsider includes someone from Derby or Sheffield. I’m not sure they got the idea of someone from the Ukraine, even before the thing with Gary.’

Maybe he didn’t know. Either way, it was making her feel worse.

They walked over the silted flats until they reached the remains of what must have been a large house or maybe a terraced row of cottages. Bex climbed onto a stone block and looked around her. As she peered more closely at the remains, she could see it must have been a manor house. Some of the stonework looked precisely hewn. Ornamental. Expensive.

There was a sound behind her, and Bex turned to see Kirsty jump over a channel and step onto an old lintel – the kind of thing that sat above a fireplace. Her clothes looked wrong in the heat. Short black skirt, big boots, and stripy tights. Gary was there too, perched on a pile of bricks.

‘This was our ancestral home,’ Kirsty said. ‘Not much left of it, is there?’

Bex looked at the chunks of stone and brick at her feet. ‘It’s kind of creepy. Why didn’t Dad want us to come here?’

‘Maybe he’s scared of the dreaded Pale Child.’ Gary jumped from a rock and landed in mud, sending splashes out sideways.

‘Oh, Gary!’ Kirsty brushed herself down. ‘Dipshit.’

‘This is where the original Pale Child lived,’ Gary said. ‘She was one of Kirsty and Bex’s ancestors. She lived in this big old house.’

‘Yes, we know all that,’ snapped Kirsty.

But Bex felt a shock go through her. She’d heard rumours about the Pale Child. If she sees your face, you die. But Bex hadn’t known she’d lived in their old house. Been a member of her family. She was both fascinated and repelled by the knowledge.

‘She comes out in drought years like this one,’ Gary said. ‘Maybe we’ll see her today.’

Gary was talking as if it was a joke, but Bex could sense the unease within the group.

Daniel gave Gary a look that Bex couldn’t fathom. ‘Why don’t you shut up, Gary?’ he said.

‘Yes, give it a rest, Gary.’ Kirsty flashed her blue-eyed gaze at him.

‘This is so cool.’ Oblivious to the tension, Anna was childishly overawed by the drowned village, and Bex liked her for it. ‘The old church is over there. I wish they hadn’t blown up the tower.’ She ran off over the flats.