Jane’s feet slide over the rock in their too-big jelly shoes. She pushes her weight back against Prin’s chest, shaking her head. She’s gripping Prin’s wrist so hard that Prin can tell she’ll leave red marks. What a scaredy-cat!

‘Hold your arms out,’ Prin tells her. ‘Like this! Like they’re your wings! Why don’t you use your imagination?’

And then Prin isn’t exactly sure what happens next; whether Jane jumped or just slipped or whether Prin’s elbow nudged her, but the next moment she is tumbling from the cliff, a whirl of arms and legs.

Prin scrambles down the staircase, her stomach a big knot. What will Daddy say if Jane is hurt? What if Jane has broken her leg, her arm, what will Daddy say? At the bottom, Jane is all crumpled on the sand and she’s making a funny keening sound. Prin rushes up, but Jane is already pushing herself upright. Her face is red, her wispy hair sticking out all round her head.

‘I thought of it,’ she pants, grinning. ‘Just like you said.’ Her face is all taken up by smiles. ‘Make-Believe! I was in the air and you were right, it was just like flying! Come on,’ she says. ‘Let’s do it again!’

After that, they jump and jump, again and again, each time better, each time higher than the last. Eventually they collapse on the warm sand and lie next to each other, breathless. From along the beach, Prin’s mum is calling for them. Lying on her side, Prin squints against the sliding sun; Daddy is coming for them across the sand, a big, tall, handsome shape. Mum’s voice continues on, high and bright in the summer air.

Just before they stand up to run to Daddy, Prin rolls over and props her chin on her hands, looking down at her cousin. ‘If you had one real wish,’ she asks her, ‘what’d you wish for?’ She thinks about what she’d wish for herself: a horse, a trip to Disneyland, a TV in her bedroom. Wings so that she really could fly.

But Jane’s answer, when it comes, takes her utterly by surprise.

‘I’d wish for a lovely mummy and daddy,’ Jane says, ‘just like yours.’

Chapter 26

I am fine, and I’ll call Alastair – and Marianne – again soon. With everything that has been going on, though, I’ve completely forgotten about the party.