‘They found out. The school told them. No one’s very happy with me right now. My mum’s trying to pretend everything’s fine, but she went mental. Yeah.’ She looks out of the window. ‘They sent me home. Coming home’s weird. It feels so empty. My dad—’ She catches herself mid-speech.

Lauren realizes she must be too young to talk to about these things, but she tries. ‘You got in trouble?’

‘Um. My dad doesn’t want me to tell anyone, but I’m suspended. Like, banned from school for a while.’

Lauren reflects on this. ‘Why did you do it?’

‘Sounds stupid now, but I thought it was beautiful.’ She pauses. ‘Don’t say anything to my mum and dad. Or my brother. They don’t want anyone to know. They made me promise.’

‘When you take a shower, will it hurt?’ Lauren points to Ann-Marie’s side.

Ann-Marie laughs. ‘No, it’ll be fine.’

One of the dogs runs into the hall, agitated, howling softly at her. ‘What’s wrong? Hey. Do you want to go outside?’

The dog runs into the games room and paws the corner of the door that leads outside to the garden. Eighties pop bounces out of a room somewhere.

The dog, either Rowland or Fergus, turns to look at Ann-Marie and barks. Lauren sees its brother hiding under the billiard table. It crawls towards the door and starts to howl too.

Ann-Marie sighs, ‘OK then.’ As she reaches for the door key, the porch light comes on outside.

Ann-Marie stops. ‘Hello?’ There is no sound. She rolls up the blind and looks through the square panes of glass. The outside light stretches over the gravel into the dark trees.

‘No, you’re not going outside.’

The dogs start a cacophony. One goes back under the table, whimpering, and the other dog begins to scratch at the door again as it barks.

‘Quiet.’ She turns to Lauren. ‘Oh! Look at these guys. It’s nothing. Probably just a bird. Or a bat. They’re such numpties. OK, so do you still want to stay over? I’ll text my parents. They’ll be fine with you sleeping in the nursery upstairs.’ She goes over to the kitchen window. ‘There’s an extra blanket in the wardrobe. I’d better stay and sort those dogs. I don’t know what’s gotten into them.’ Lauren doesn’t ask why she’s not letting them outside.