‘You don’t know?’ Naomi turns to me, incredulous.

‘Well, I did have a bit of a peer in the window when I first moved in, but it looked like a load of old junk and garden tools, and there was this huge spider – you should’ve seen the size of it.’ I give a shudder. ‘It’s on my list,’ I add sheepishly.

Pushing her sunglasses onto her forehead, Naomi puts her hands on her tiny hips. ‘Well, we’d better get cracking on that list while I’m here then, hadn’t we?’

‘Don’t be silly – you’re a guest,’ I begin to protest, but she bats away my objections.

‘It’ll be good to keep myself busy, take my mind off things.’ She glances towards Ellie who’s now playing on the grass, making sure she’s out of earshot. ‘I’ve had a big fight with Danny.’

‘Why? What happened?’ I feel a beat of concern.

‘Mummy, can we go to the castle?’ Ellie runs over.

Naomi shoots me an apologetic look, ‘Sorry,’ she hisses, ‘I told her there was one near here, and it’s all she’s been talking about on the way up. I did try to explain it wouldn’t be like Arendelle Castle.’

At the mention of the castle, my memory flicks back to me and my sister as children, playing hide-and-seek in its ramparts. It catches me off-balance.

‘Frozen,’ she adds, mistaking my expression for confusion.

‘It’s fine,’ I say quickly, as much for my own benefit as hers. ‘Let’s go. It’ll be fun.’

After checking with Valentine that it’s OK to drop Harry over at his house, I drive us all to Raven Castle in my new car. I bought it a few days ago, after getting more replies to my tutoring ad. I’ve now gained three more pupils, all doing their eleven-plus, all living in nearby villages, and with transport links not being like those in London, I need the car to get around.

That said, the Trade Descriptions Act might take issue with the words ‘new’ and ‘car’. After my experience with the rental car, I needed to be able to see over the drystone walls and have seats that I could wipe down easily, but after several weeks of searching fruitlessly for cars online, I was beginning to think I was never going to be able to afford anything suitable.

That was until I bumped into the local farmer at the weekend. I’d actually been taking photos of the trough that he used for his cows – a rusty old claw-foot bath – in order to show Ben what I had in mind for my bathroom, when he drove by in an old Land Rover with a ‘For sale’ sign taped on the window. Apparently he’d just bought it for his wife, but she was having none of it, having set her heart on ‘one of those newfangled electric cars’.

Which is why, after offering me it for a price I couldn’t turn down, his wife is now the proud owner of a sporty red Honda Jazz and I’m rattling along the country lanes behind the wheel of an ancient olive-green Land Rover Defender, with Naomi next to me and Ellie on the back seat; she’s insisted on wearing her glittery blue Princess Elsa dress and bringing her wand, complete with its mini snow globe on top.