‘Then what is?’ he asks, and this time Allie doesn’t come to my rescue. She is just as intrigued to hear the answer, I realise; I can see the curiosity in her eyes just as my own fill with treacherous tears.

Almost immediately, Kit senses that he has pushed me too far and, getting to his feet with an apologetic murmur, announces that he’s off to check on Tui, although it’s obvious he is going purely to give me some space.

‘Sorry about him.’ Allie sits down on the vacated bale of straw. ‘He can be like a seal with a crayfish, that one – bloody relentless.’

‘You look really nice today,’ I tell her, my keenness to change the subject making me more direct than I usually would be. Allie looks self-conscious for a beat or two, before giving in to a smile.

‘I thought I should make a bit of an effort,’ she confides. ‘Given that it’s the last time I’ll get to party with a lot of these guys for a while.’

‘Oh?’ I swallow nervously.

‘Yeah,’ she says, picking out a piece of straw and twisting it around her finger. ‘Didn’t Kit tell you? We’re off to Wellington in the New Year. Well, I am, anyway. Kit is gonna wait for Bonnie to get back, but then he’ll come and join me.’

‘That’s great,’ I say, then start coughing as my sip of beer goes down the wrong way. Allie pats me hard on the back, but this only seems to make it worse.

‘Shit!’ I gasp, struggling to breathe as my eyes fill with water. ‘Sorry. Shit!’

‘Drinking really is bad for your health,’ she remarks, but her face is all concern.

It takes me a few minutes to fully recover, during which time Allie has fetched me a soft drink and some napkins, which I use to mop my wet cheeks.

‘Won’t you miss all this?’ I ask her, when I’m able to speak again. ‘The horses, the people?’

As she goes to answer, I realise it is exactly what Hayley asked me, not long before I came out here. She knew what I would say in response, just as I know what Allie will say now.

‘Of course,’ she agrees. ‘But they’ll all still be here. It’s not as if Wellington is on the other side of the world.’

I wonder what Bonnie thinks about her head girl quitting. I wonder if she even knows.

‘In fact,’ Allie adds, ‘I was going to ask you a favour.’

‘Oh?’

‘I need a few days to pack and sort stuff out for the move, and I was wondering if you’d help out here. Don’t worry,’ she hastens, seeing the look on my face, ‘you won’t have to take out any rides – just help with the general chores, do a bit of tacking and untacking, maybe teach Tui …’