She fingered her new gold necklace that she had picked up on her trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum. It comforted her, knowing she had this beautiful thing round her neck.

It took them a few minutes to find the hotel, Ella and Robbie both nervously checking the petrol gauge every few seconds. When they arrived Ella saw that you could only get to the island over a footbridge that led from the car park. They parked the Range Rover and sat there taking in the silence for a while, nobody wanting to be the first to leave the safe cocoon of the car. Staring at the river that was sparkling in the early afternoon light.

‘What do you reckon?’ said Maeve eventually. ‘Shall we go check it out?’

‘Let’s do it,’ said Robbie.

They all climbed out of the car. Sniffed the sharp air. There was the smell of the river and the nearby trees and grass. It smelt good. Clean. Ella knew what grown-ups smelt like, and it wasn’t like this. It all seemed very peaceful. There were birds singing, but there was no sign of any human activity. No grown-ups. No children.

Robbie and Maeve both had swords, and Robbie had a crutch that he hopped along on. Maeve led the four of them over the metal footbridge to the island.

‘I been thinking,’ said Robbie, looking down at the gurgling water. ‘There might be a boat here. We could go upriver on it. Be safe from any sickos that way. What river is this anyway?’

‘It’s the Thames, I think,’ said Maeve.

‘The Thames? You’re joking me. It don’t look nothing like what it does in town.’ He whooped up at the sky. ‘Everything’s better in the countryside!’

There was a wide lawn, completely overgrown, the grass up to their thighs, and past it there was a fancy old hotel, all white, with columns and arched windows. It was like something out of one of the BBC programmes that Ella’s mum used to watch, where the women wore bonnets and the men wore top hats. It didn’t look as if it had been vandalized at all, or broken into. There was still no sign of any human activity anywhere. They’d found a magic dream place. A summer island. They could live here as a family. With Maeve and Robbie as Mum and Dad and Ella and Monkey-Boy as their children.

‘Let’s go and check in,’ said Maeve, and she broke away, running through the grass. One by one the others joined in. As she ran, the grass whipping at her, Ella felt suddenly wild and free.