Her mum and dad were both busy somewhere in the maze of greenhouses, so Nory texted them both goodbye and promised to visit again soon. Then she called Ameerah.

“Hey, gorgeous, I just kicked everyone’s arse at archery.” There were sounds of loud disagreement in the background. “How’d it go with the fam?”

“Can you come and get me?”

“That good, huh?”

“Worse.”

“I’ll be there in twenty. Is that little coffee shop still going in the high street?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. Go grab yourself a mocha, and I’ll meet you there.”

“Thanks, Ameerah.”

“No problem.”

Twenty-five minutes later, Ameerah plonked herself down in the chair opposite Nory. Castle Coffee had gone full Christmas bonanza, complete with snow spray laying in heaps at the bottoms of the leaded windowpanes, and a festive scene of cuddly polar bears and penguins frolicking on a bed of cotton wool snow along the deep window ledge. Michael Bublé’s voice crooned out of the speakers, beneath the hubbub of the busy café.

“I ordered us another coffee,” said Ameerah. “Thought you might need to gather your wits before you come back up to the castle.”

“Thanks, Ameerah. Sorry to drag you away from the fun.”

“Oh god no, thank you! Guy’s been insufferable all morning. I don’t know how Camille puts up with him. Charles, of course, was in full competitive mode, which started Guy off. Camille, by the way, is like bloody Katniss Everdeen with a bow—properly blew us all out of the water.”

“Good for her, I feel bad at how she’s kind of in Guy’s shadow all the time.”

“Oh, I think she can hold her own in her real life; she’s just a bit shy around us.”

“It must be a bit intimidating coming into a group with so much history. Although it doesn’t seem to bother Dev.”

“I have to admit, I may have misjudged Dev.”

“You don’t say?” Nory mocked.

“It doesn’t happen often, but when it does I own it.”

“How gracious of you.” Nory smiled across at her best friend.

“I’d put his happy-go-lucky demeanor down to a lack of brain cells. And I was fine with that; let’s face it, it wasn’t his mind I was drawn to.”

“Bit unkind but go on.”

“But it turns out, he’s really intelligent!”

“I did try to tell you that.”

“He has this inner confidence; it’s like he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him because he has this quiet sense of his own worth.”

“Admirable qualities,” said Nory.

“I know,” replied Ameerah, looking troubled. “I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Nory laughed. “Why don’t you give yourself a break from being a badass and let yourself fall in love? It’s not anti-feminist to be in love, you know.”

“I made a vow to myself.”