Ameerah groaned. “Thank you, Sasha, for reminding me about my terrible taste in men.”

“He was too old for you anyway. What were you? Fourteen? Fifteen? He was nineteen if he was a day. The both of you were flushed as milkmaids all summer, you with your crush on Peter, and Nory hanging around the fair after that boy with spots and a Mohawk who ran the ghost train. Lord alive, I was glad when term started again. Your dad was this close to punching him on the nose, he was sure he was trying to get you to elope.”

“Oh my god, really? I don’t remember it being that serious. I know I fancied him, but I wasn’t about to run away with the carnival like Peter Leech.” Nory laughed.

“What was ghost-train boy’s name again?” Ameerah asked.

“Thor,” Nory replied.

“That was it. Did he give himself that name?”

“I don’t think so, his brother was called Njord.”

“Oh yeah, ran the bumper cars, looked like he’d had his face flattened with an iron.”

“That’s the one.”

“Sometimes I wonder how I survived you girls,” said Sasha. “Thomas was straightforward by comparison; even with all those motorbike hooligans he hung around with, and the wacky baccy, he still wasn’t a pinch on you two.”

The door flew open, and Thomas and Shelley walked in.

“Speak of the devil,” said Ameerah, while the new arrivals divested themselves of boots and coats.

“Literally,” Nory muttered, and received a frown from her mum.

“Amie!” said Thomas, ruffling the top of Ameerah’s head like she was a dog, instantly ruining all her hard work with the hair straightener. “It’s been a while. You home for Christmas? The boys were asking after you the other day.” His gaze wandered lazily over to Nory, as though only just seeing her, and he swiftly gave her hair the same treatment. “All right, Bugs?”

Nory flushed instantly. “Get off, Thom!” she snapped.

“What’s your problem?” he asked so innocently that Nory wanted to smoosh a crusty bread roll into his face.

“You!”

Before she could say more, Shelley cut in: “Hello, Ameerah, lovely to see you. Hi, Nory. Douglas had the drone out over the castle grounds the other night, and he caught you and Isaac taking a cozy moonlit walk. What’s going on there, then, eh?” She nudged Nory and winked. Shelley couldn’t possibly have known that this was exactly the wrong thing to say. Thomas scowled and Nory felt her cheeks flush with indignation.

Sasha clapped her hands delightedly. “I knew it! I could feel the sparks coming off you two the other day,” she gushed.

“There’s nothing to know, Mum,” Nory said, looking square at Thomas. “And why is Douglas flying a drone over the castle?”