At some point, I must have dozed off, because a flurry of pings jerked me awake to find my head still resting on Henry’s chest, one arm and a leg entwined with his. At some point we’d adjusted position so that we were both lying full-length down the mattress, tucking the sleeping bag around us, so as I hastily scrambled away I ended up back on the concrete, the blast of icy air ensuring I was now completely awake.

Pulling my phone out of my coat pocket, I found several messages lighting up the screen.

I’m sorry

I love you

I wish you were here

Please let me know you got back OK

And that you don’t hate me

And that I can be your secret boyfriend for as long as it takes xxx

‘Everything all right?’ Henry asked, voice rough with sleep.

I smiled as a wave of happiness flooded my chest. ‘Yes.’

Adam sent one more message after I’d replied to let him know that I was fine, and sorry too.

Sleep well. I’ll be dreaming about you xxx

Tucking the phone back in my pocket, I crept back under the sleeping bag and lay straight as a board, ensuring that not an inch of my body now touched Henry’s. I suspected that if Adam knew who I was sharing a bed with he’d be amused rather than jealous, but I wasn’t going to risk telling him. Henry had done a nice thing in letting me sleep here and I didn’t want Adam turning that into a snide joke.

‘Goodnight, then,’ Henry said, his voice as soft as the shadows.

‘’Night. Thanks again for not letting me die.’

‘It’s the least I could do for my childhood betrothed.’

‘Okay, so now you’ve made it weird again…’

Except it wasn’t weird. Or rather, the only weird thing about me sharing a bed with Henry was how utterly normal and non-weird it felt.

I still spent the rest of the school year ignoring him. Which on reflection, as I lay in the creaky old bed in a Scottish castle eleven years later, was probably one of the stupidest and meanest things I’d ever done.

12

After a night of twisting about in tartan blankets while trying not to disturb my roommate, I hauled myself out of bed just after seven and had a lightning-quick shower. By the time I emerged, dressed in my interview outfit of calf-length tea dress covered in robins, Henry was looking out of the window dressed in jeans. a thick jumper, and his boots.

‘The snow’s arrived,’ he said, nodding at the thick layer now covering every surface of the gardens beyond the window.

‘I could have told you that.’ I went to confirm that my forecast of at least eight inches was correct.

‘I thought I’d go for a quick walk, give you some space to get ready,’ he said.