Twenty minutes later he was showered and dressed and sitting before a plate of steaming food, holding his cup of espresso, extra sweet. Taking a deep sip, he shut his eyes, savouring it. It was funny, he thought, smiling, how the one thing they hadn’t managed to do was find a substitute for caffeine. Or at least, one that anybody wanted.

The patter of feet outside the kitchen door chased the thought from his mind and the smile from his face. He was going to have to handle this properly, he thought. It couldn’t be easy for the child to go through all that and wake up in the home of a perfect stranger, in a world she clearly didn’t understand. That little episode in the bathroom last evening had been sufficient to show him just how out of her depth she was here. He put on his most welcoming smile, determined to put her at ease. Something told him that things would go a lot easier if he could get her to cooperate.

The door opened and Theo marched in, looking quite ludicrous in a pair of blue pyjamas much too big for her. She shuffled up to the table and perched herself on the chair opposite him, with not a hint of awkwardness or shyness—as if she sat here every day.

‘Mornin’, Mac!’

The insouciance was back in her voice; she was clearly recovering rapidly from the events of the previous day. More rapidly than he was, at any rate.

‘Good morning, um … Theo, you’re just in time for breakfast. Would you like some milk?’

‘Milk? Ech! Don’t you have any spirits?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Spirits, Mac! You know, like booze. Firewater. Grog. Can I get some?’

‘Certainly not. You can have some milk.’

‘Gah!’ said the girl.

Albert began to feel out of his depth. No doubt there were several things you could say to a little girl dressed in your pyjamas who demanded spirits first thing in the morning, but he couldn’t think of any of them. He settled for the first question that came to mind. ‘So, do your parents know of your preference for … um … spirits? Or actually, to begin with, do you have parents? You do live in families, right? So is there someone who—’

‘You sure ask a lotta questions, Mac,’ said Theo cheerfully, sipping on his coffee, which, by some sleight of hand, she’d managed to palm without seeming to move. He reached out for it and she beamed back at him, making no move to relinquish it.

‘I dunno,’ she added a moment later, pausing between slurps.

‘You don’t know if you have parents?’ he asked, retrieving the cup from her, mournfully inspecting what remained of the contents.

‘Nope. Dunno where they are.’

She cracked her knuckles loudly, ignoring his look of disapproval.

‘Stop doing that.’

‘Why?’