Lexy wasn’t listening. She was trying to move as far away as she could from JP. He had just pinched her arm yet again. He’d been doing it ever since they left the house. Every time he did it he smiled at her, as if it was their own private little joke, although his eyes, if you looked at them closely enough, were cruel and mocking.

Lexy had originally tried to suggest that their honored guest should go in the front of the car, but Jupiter Peacock had claimed that he always got carsick unless he was in the back. And so Lexy was trapped. On and on went the guided tour. And just when it seemed that they had actually seen all the sights, JP would ask about some other thing—municipal graveyards, allotments, pet shops—and the car would sputter off in some new direction.

“We should park somewhere and show JP the Winter Fair,” said Lexy. “There are loads of good stalls this year.”

And for that she got another hard pinch. The worst one yet.

“Ow,” she said as softly as she could. “Stop it,” she whispered. She couldn’t risk her parents hearing her. If they asked what was going on and she told them, they’d probably be angry with her for upsetting JP. It had all been going so well—at least, as far as Hazel was concerned. JP had complimented her just this morning on her toast-making skills and asked her where she had bought the lovely guest soap he’d been given.

He surely was just messing around. And anyway, maybe Lexy had encouraged him. After all, she had failed to say no to the arm wrestling and the horrible kiss. He probably thought she liked being pinched. Even though she’d just said to stop, he might have just thought that she was joking, or secretly enjoying it or something. If she told on him, perhaps everything that followed would actually be her fault. And if her parents got angry with him, that would ruin everything for them.

If they even believed her. And why would anyone believe her? After all, what sort of professor went around pinching children? If Lexy said anything to anyone, they’d no doubt just say the pinches couldn’t have been that hard, or it must have been a joke. Children pinched each other all the time and it wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe Lexy just couldn’t take a joke. The thing was, it just didn’t particularly feel like a joke. Lexy knew deep, deep down that what was happening was really very wrong, but she just couldn’t work out what to do about it.

“So what’s your book about?” Marcel asked JP.