I scrambled to my feet, standing on the bench to look over the wall, so I could watch the lighthouse winking in the distance. Milly did the same.

‘I’ve missed you,’ she said.

I pictured the two of us, dancing together in a nightclub upcountry to celebrate my sixteenth birthday, our arms around each other, tinsel in our hair and swaying in heels too high to walk in, the room and lights spinning from too many bottles of beer, elated that we had pulled it off despite being underage.

‘Me too you,’ I said.

‘My mother says you have a father complex, because of your dad dying and all. She says that’s what you see in Zac.’

‘Eew. That’s not true.’ Though a part of me knew it was. Still, I blushed at the idea of Peggy thinking about my sex life.

‘We’re neglecting the blog,’ Milly said. ‘We’ll lose followers.’

‘I’ll do something this week. Wuthering Heights has been getting a lot of hate.’

‘Mum will be happy. She’s our number one fan. But have I told you lately she is completely insane? We crossed on the stairs, and she closed her eyes and chanted “Avert” and waved her hands about. Honestly, it was the most embarrassing thing.’

‘Did she pick that up when we made her read The Earthsea Quartet?’

‘Yep, but she won’t admit she’s trying to ward off curses or bad luck. She’d die before she confessed to any superstition about stair crossing.’

‘Have I told you lately that I am an orphan, and you are lucky to have a mum?’

‘Well you have Lord Voldemort. I can’t believe he let you out. Does he make you sleep in a dungeon?’

‘Yes – but don’t call him that, Milly.’

‘I’ll see your Lord Voldemort and raise you a Gaston.’

‘Fair enough. I deserved that.’

‘Looks like Lord Voldemort. Acts like Lord Voldemort. He’s even got the bald thing going on. Please tell me he hasn’t branded you with the dark mark.’

‘Only between my legs.’

She snorted a mouthful of the beer she’d brought out from the pub, the last place in the row of shops and restaurants along the front, and the closest one to the pier. I was drinking spiced tomato juice, and Milly thought this was because I was driving, which was true but not the most important reason.

‘You’re still in there after all,’ she said. ‘I was beginning to think he’d replaced you with a Stepford wife. Thank God the two of you aren’t married.’

‘He wants to.’

‘Well don’t. Please, promise me you won’t.’

My own secret voice was saying, You’re betraying him to sit and listen to this. You should say, How dare you talk about him that way. You should go home right now.

‘You’ll never escape him if you do,’ she said.