Reluctantly, Jane sets her glass down. She has wet streaks pointing upwards from the corners of her mouth where the juice has pressed against her skin. ‘Can I go now?’ Prin asks Daddy. ‘Can we go and play upstairs?’

Mum steps towards them, glancing at Daddy. ‘Well,’ she says, ‘shouldn’t I come too? Show Jane where everything is, make sure she gets properly settled?’

Prin crosses her arms and turns her mouth down. She looks at Daddy as well, from under her eyelashes. Daddy leans against the counter top and crosses his own arms, like he’s mimicking Prin. ‘I think the girls will be all right by themselves. And we have a few things to talk through, don’t we?’

He’s saying that part to Mum, and Mum hesitates for a moment and then nods.

Daddy grins down at Prin, turning the edges of his mouth right up. ‘Go on then, off you go.’ And he reaches forward to give her bottom a smack, through the dress so that it doesn’t hurt, to send her on her way.

Prin is so excited that she finds herself grabbing her cousin’s hand in hers as they climb the stairs, pulling her up. Jane is all stiff and rigid. She doesn’t seem to be enjoying herself yet. Prin’s room is the very first one off the landing at the top. It has her name – her real name that is – on the door in pink glitter letters. She lets go of Jane’s hand and pushes the door open. Mum tidied up the room before they left this morning, and it looks perfect! The big double bed with its canopy, the dolls on the pillow, the window seat and the big window that opens onto the roof, the dolls’ house in the corner, the desk with all her colouring books, and all her other toys and games stuffed on the book shelves.

Prin bounces on the bed. ‘Come in,’ she tells her cousin. ‘You’re going to sleep in here with me. We’re going to share the same room, like sisters.’

Jane hovers in the doorway. She looks as though she should be sucking her thumb. ‘This is your room?’ she says. Prin wonders what Jane’s own bedroom is like, back at her own house. Nobody has said anything about that. All Prin knows is that Jane has come from a place called the Isle of White, which sounds like a pretty place to be, even if she doesn’t exactly know how to spell it. And that she came over here on a boat, which makes Prin just a tiny bit jealous, because she wouldn’t mind a trip on a boat too.

Cautiously, Jane steps inside.

‘You can play with anything,’ says Prin, ‘so long as you ask me first. So I can give you permission.’