“Not exactly,” Mimi said. “They are wild, the horses of the Camargue. They roam our lands at will. Once or twice a year the gardians, who are the cowboys, the gauchos who manage my land, they herd them all together and they brand them and care for the young ones, break the older ones in under saddle so that they can be ridden. Then they let them loose again in winter and they run wild and free in the sea.”

“In the sea?” I became interested in spite of myself.

“Yes,” Mimi said. “The Camargue is a tidal swamp, and the horses are accustomed to having wet feet. They graze on the sea grass and they run through the waves and they are all coloured grey like the skies and the oceans – they are very beautiful.”

She smiled at me again. “So you’ll come and stay? Your father says you have no more school. We have plenty of room. It would be fun, I promise.”

It strikes me now that this is what Mimi and my papa had planned all along. Tonight, I was just making my way to bed when I heard voices in the study. I wheeled my chair up the hall and through a crack in the door I could see them in there – Papa and Mimi – both of them sitting in enormous leather armchairs at the edge of the fireplace. The fire was crackling very loudly as the wood split and bubbled in the grate. My papa and Mimi were both smoking cigars and enjoying some dark reddish-brown liquid in crystal glasses, and they were talking in very serious voices. The topic of the conversation was me.

“I hope you are aware of what you are taking on,” Papa was saying. “Rose has never been an easy child to raise. She’s always been wilful, and refused to do things in a way that most girls do. Now, since her accident, it has become impossible to reason with her.”

Aunty Mimi’s voice was gravelly but warm. “Being obstinate and headstrong are good qualities in a girl as far as I’m concerned. I was the same as a child, wasn’t I?”

“Yes. And look how you turned out!” Papa growled.

Through the gap in the door I saw Mimi reach out and clasp my papa’s hand, and I must say I was shocked to see that a genuine affection existed between sister and brother – just as it is with Dorian and me.