I looked down at my espadrille wedges. They were made for lovely afternoon walks amongst the roses.

They were not made for goat-wrangling.

“Just hold the gate, Gabi. I’ll handle the goats. How much more different than horses can they be?”

I swallowed, glancing at Miles who, judging by the way his lips were twitching, was as sceptical about this as I was. “Alex, are you sure about that?”

“Sure. It’ll be easy. Let’s go.”

***

Those were, in fact, Alex’s famous last words.

Goats were very different to horses.

While he was a talented equestrian, he’d never actually had anything to do with goats beyond feeding kids at a petting zoo, so the idea that he could control them was one of the best things I’d heard in a while.

Naturally, I had no intention of helping at all, except to shout very helpfully from where me and my nice shoes were leaning against the gate.

“You’re going the wrong way!” I called from where I was manning the gate.

“I can see that!” Alex shouted, standing with his legs askew and his arms out wide. He’d taken his shirt off ten minutes ago since he’d fallen in the fountain when Albert the goat had charged at him, and we were now gaining quite the crowd of spectators.

People were even videoing it.

My father was not going to be pleased.

“Go left!” Miles shouted, using a rake as the extension of his arm. “Stop Queen Victoria! She’s going on a rampage!”

I couldn’t help it.

I giggled.

“Stop laughing!” Alex shouted at me. “Can’t you help us?”

“No.” I laughed more. “This is the best.”

Miles shouted as Victoria barrelled towards him and he managed to bat her away with his plastic rake.

Even if my father wasn’t pleased this would end up on the internet within an hour, I was going to watch it over and over again.

Forever.

After a few more minutes of them attempting to herd the goats in and the crowd getting too big even for my amusement anymore, I sighed and decided it was time to take pity on them.

“Miles, how badly do you want this to be over?”

“Just help us!” he shouted at me, shooting me an angry look.

I held up my hands and walked away from the gate, towards the strawberry patch. A few wild alpine strawberries were now ripening, and I grabbed one of the pots that was full of the tiny berries.

“What are you doing?” Miles demanded when I returned. “Put my strawberries down!”

“Hey, Victoria!” I plucked off a small one and tossed it in her direction. She stopped and immediately gobbled up the tiny berry, then trotted over towards me. The single berry had done the job because the throw had gotten Albert’s attention, and I was able to bribe both of them through the huge, metal gate that was supposed to keep them in.

“Bloody hell,” Alex said, grabbing his shirt and following me through. “Couldn’t you have done that ten minutes ago?”