Ellie froze, all her paranoia and frustration rushing back. ‘No, we’re not telling them about Haru,’ she said calmly, remembering the look on her grandmother’s face when she’d mentioned Jamie. ‘That’s our secret.’

‘Ellie, I just don’t see how this is going to help anyone,’ Lottie pleaded.

‘It helps me, Lottie, because it’s one thing in all this chaos that I have control over. And if they’re keeping secrets from me, then I can keep secrets from them.’

‘This is mad. You’re acting like –’

‘Like what?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Lottie replied, her defeated look making Ellie feel sick with shame. ‘Let’s just go back in and I’ll try to salvage what I can.’

She didn’t look at Ellie as they made their way back through the creaking door into the frigid room. Ellie’s guilt was quickly replaced by anger when she saw her family whispering together. They turned, looking like a pack of wolves caught unexpectedly, feasting over what Ellie could only assume were more secrets.

‘Are you ready to have a civil discussion now?’ her father asked.

Ellie just caught the hint of a quiver in his eyebrow and she glanced at Lottie, whose face was once again a mask of calm, and nodded.

‘We have some information we want to share,’ Lottie said, and Ellie froze. She wouldn’t tell them about Haru, would she?

No, she’d never betray her. Lottie was the one person she could trust. But Ellie’s hands trembled, sweat building on her palms.

Please, Lottie. Please not you too.

‘In the woods Ingrid said a few cryptic things,’ Lottie began. The relief that washed over Ellie’s body was so intense she thought she might collapse. ‘The first was that Claude would be welcomed back “just like Alexis”. She seemed to be suggesting that –’ Lottie hesitated – ‘that you, King Alexander and Queen Matilde, would be disposed of. We can’t rule out the possibility that this may well be the reason they needed the mind-controlling capabilities of the Hamelin Formula.’

Ellie couldn’t help sucking her teeth in shock, but her parents hardly reacted.

‘And the second and slightly weirder one …’ Lottie glanced at Ellie but quickly continued. ‘She asked me why Jamie was my Partizan.’

‘Wait, what?’ Ellie spluttered. ‘You never told me any of this.’

‘I’m telling you now. I thought it would be best if your whole family heard it together.’ The hint of regret in Lottie’s voice made Ellie angry all over again, this time because Lottie had had to shoulder the burden of this terrible information. ‘Of course, Ingrid meant the princess of Maradova, but I just thought it was odd, and perhaps you would know why she would …’ Lottie trailed off, her eyes widening as she stared at the hearth.