‘Hi there, Marnie.’ Amy gave Marnie a friendly grin and perched on the edge of the big kitchen table, swinging long legs in extremely tight jeans. A lot of bare midriff was exposed between skinny T-shirt and the top of the jeans and a small diamond stud glinted from her navel. ‘Oh good . . . yummy,’ she said helping herself to a couple of the chocolate cookies that had been put out for the writing group. ‘We never get these in the morning unless there’s a course in residence! You mustn’t mind that Ed went off the boil and walked out like that,’ she went on, through a mouthful of crumbs. ‘Mum would go spare if she knew he’d done that to you because she tries so hard with his manners – and he really tries too – but if he gets distracted he forgets what he’s doing and then does something else. He’ll probably remember just as suddenly another time that he wants to show you his treasures and then there’ll be no stopping him until he’s dragged you off to inspect them – whether you want to or not!’ She looked anxiously at Marnie. ‘In fact you’re amazingly honoured. He’s obviously taken one of his shines to you and he won’t have meant to be rude. Etiquette is like a foreign language for Ed – he’s just no good at making the right social noises at people.’

‘I’d be the last person to criticise anyone for that – I’m not too brilliant at it myself,’ said Marnie, liking Amy for this defence of her twin. She thought it would be difficult to guess the relationship between them if you didn’t know what it was. Frail, shortsighted Edward, with his powerful pebble glasses, lopsided body and awkward ways seemed as unlike his sophisticated sister as it was possible to be. Amy had inherited the best of both her parents’ looks, Marnie decided. She had Isobel’s enviable hair and amused, expressive grey eyes, but she was a good deal taller than her mother, with something of her father’s unsettling aura of glamour. As Marnie had watched Edward scuttling, crab-like, out of the kitchen and across the hall to join his little cousin, she had been conscious of a lump in her throat and thought that Amy’s easy grace underlined a heart-rending contrast with her brother’s jerky movements. Marnie’s admiration for the Grants went up even further. How do they do it? she thought. How do they appear so cheerful and amusing – so interested in everyone else, when they must so often be full of private anguish? She resolved to get to know Edward better and try to enter into his different but intriguing world on his own terms.