‘This better not be a joke,’ Sarraf said.

‘Lost my sense of humour when someone put a bomb on my daughter’s bus.’

Bee sees them as soon as she steps out of Mile End Tube station. Violette, Eddie, and that annoying Gigi Shahbazi. They’re across the road, standing in front of the bus stop. Bee hasn’t realised until now how much she’s been hoping Violette and Eddie would turn up in her life again. She hasn’t known them for long but she’s felt bereft without them. Violette is wearing a sundress, of all things. She’s cut all the blonde out of her hair and Bee can’t get over how short and dark it is. Eddie is dressed in skinny long shorts and expensive runners. They could be a couple of rich kids out on a sunny London day.

Bee crosses the road and Violette’s watching her all the way. Eddie grins when she reaches them, and Bee sees her own brother standing next to him. She sees Stevie everywhere these days.

‘Lots of CCTV around here,’ she tells Violette, while eyeing Gigi. It would have been her dumb idea to pick Mile End Tube station.

‘Yeah, but also a lot of people who look like us, so we don’t stand out.’

Gigi gives Violette a droll stare. ‘We do not look like these people.’

‘What’s with the dress?’ Bee asks. Up close, she notices that Violette is wearing a small satchel purse across her body. No backpack. She had been a canvas bag sort of girl in France. Her favourite one said: World change starts with educated children. Bee googled the quote when she got back to Ashford.

‘What’s wrong with the dress?’ Gigi wants to know. So it’s hers, Bee thinks. Eddie and Violette’s upmarket clothes make more sense now.

‘Where are you guys heading?’ Bee asks Violette, ignoring the question.

When Eddie goes to speak Violette nudges him to silence and Bee hates her for it. Brainless Georgette Shahbazi, who caved after a minute of interrogation, can be trusted, but not Bee.

The poser in question stands up and does that ridiculous thing that vain, vacuous girls do with their hair. Bee recognises her own Arctic Monkeys T-shirt. ‘I can’t believe you gave that to her!’ she tells Violette.

‘I can’t believe she gave you my skirt,’ Gigi says to Bee.

‘I can’t believe you sent it to me, Geej,’ Violette says. ‘Did you honestly think my grandmother would let me wear that around the farm?’

‘It doesn’t look bad with ugg boots, like she wore the other night,’ Gigi says.

‘That’s a Gigi compliment, Bee,’ Violette says. ‘She knows her stuff.’

The poser nods in agreement. Of course she would.

‘My mum and Aunt Layla have only one fashion rule. As long as they can’t see arse cheeks.’

Bee doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of saying it’s her mother’s rule as well.

‘I’d better go before everyone at home has a cow,’ Gigi says to Violette and Eddie, as if Bee isn’t there.