‘Maeve and Brenna have gone for a nap. I think they were more scared than they wanted to let on, and Brenna fell asleep on my chest almost instantly once things had calmed down.’ He sighed. ‘Morven and Cass are both in their rooms. Scheming, I expect.’

‘Scheming?’

‘Apparently there was more to that fight than I realised. I think you, too, have fallen into the trap of underestimating Glenn. He’s so scrawny and limp and quiet, you’d think he wouldn’t hurt a fly. And then there’s Cass. He’s always had an alpha streak in him, and I think he looks to me as a role model, which is fine, I guess.’

He definitely did not seem to find the idea fine. At all. He was gazing out towards the horizon, unblinking, and cracking his knuckles absentmindedly.

‘Anyway, that means he gets defensive and he thinks it’s his responsibility to dish out punishments. He’s very protective over everyone here, but he and Glenn have never seen eye to eye. I don’t know if it’s because he feels threatened by him or whether it goes deeper than that, but the two of them bicker and snap at each other all the time. Fights don’t break out often though. According to Morven, Glenn had been saying something about Grace and me and it sounds like Cass took it pretty personally.’

‘Wait, what was Glenn saying about you and Grace?’

‘He is an … unusual boy; I’m sure you will have noticed. He took it really badly when Grace didn’t come back. Blamed me, I think. That anger has built up over the last few months, and then with you arriving, I think he thinks I’m trying to replace Grace. Morven said he just flipped out, started calling me awful names, and calling Grace names too, which is really odd because Grace was the only one who could ever really get through to him.’ Jem sounded fraught and hurt. His voice cracked and he coughed, trying to clear it.

‘How strange…’ Lily thought back over everything Glenn had told her. ‘I didn’t think he seemed the type of boy to start a fight.’

‘Well, you don’t know him, do you?’ Jem snapped.

‘I just meant—’

‘I know what you meant. Don’t make assumptions. You don’t know them, you don’t know me, you don’t know anything about us. You can’t just saunter in here and presume you know exactly what’s going on and you can’t expect to understand either. I’m thankful that you helped Glenn but don’t push it. All right?’

Lily was furious. How dare he speak to her like that? How dare he, after she had agreed to stay and help him, after she had nursed Glenn back from the brink?

She turned to him, ready to tell him exactly what she thought of him and his arrogant outburst. Jem was shaking, anger rippling through him like the waves that battered the shoreline, and Lily lost all of her fire. He looked pitiful. There was a huge part of her that was tempted to storm away and leave him to sulk. Something kept her there though. Sympathy perhaps, or curiosity.