Kym stood still, feeling foolish, vulnerable; the yard was obviously empty. She turned, scanning the shadows. To her left, the door to Spinnaker Cottage slowly opened. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi. Evie. Sorry.’

She was wearing leggings and a T-shirt, she looked as if she was ready for bed. Behind her, half hidden in shadow, a dog growled softly, and Evie nudged it back out of the way with her leg. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘Yes. Of course it is. I’m just – babysitting for Nell Galilee.’

‘Right.’ Evie looked up towards Elder House where Maude stood, barefoot, peering anxiously down at them. She held something in her hands, a toy perhaps, a teddy bear. ‘And how’s that going, then?’

Maude took a couple of hesitant steps towards them, pale under the security light, a thin line, a fine thread of scarlet unspooling from wrist to elbow. Blood. The dog growled again, then gave a single harsh bark.

‘Shit.’ Kym ran back up to Maude, vaguely aware that Evie was close behind her, matching her stride, taking the steps two at a time. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

*

It turned out that Evie was remarkably calm in a crisis. It was she who managed to get Maude to give up the shoe she’d been holding. She’d discarded it as quickly as she could, her expression more than simple mild distaste, and got Maude over to the sink where she was examining her wound.

‘Did you see anyone?’ Maude asked.

‘No. He’s – there’s no one there.’

‘Should we call the police?’

‘I’d rather we didn’t,’ said Kym, glancing at Evie. ‘I’m pretty sure it was Tyler – messing about.’

‘The good-looking guy on your phone.’

‘Yes.’ Kym picked up the shoe and examined it carefully, moving across the room until she was under a spotlight.

‘So, is he your boyfriend or isn’t he?’ Maude asked as Evie held her hand under the cold tap, cleaning the deep puncture in the pad of Maude’s thumb.

‘No,’ said Kym, ‘not anymore. I told you.’

‘But it was just a joke, yeah?’

The kid was getting a bit of colour back in her cheeks. A pin, very old, blackened with age, had been forced into the seam of the shoe, so tightly Kym couldn’t pull it free – and as Maude had tightened her grip, it had pierced her skin; how she hadn’t felt it and dropped the damn thing was a mystery. As it was, the wound was deep enough to have produced an impressive amount of blood. Kym didn’t like to think what might have happened if she’d caught herself just an inch or so lower, if she’d managed to puncture one of the blue veins in her wrist.