‘There.’ Evie switched off the tap. ‘It’s stopped bleeding, I think.’ She grabbed a length of kitchen roll, wadded it up and pressed it against the younger girl’s hand. ‘You won’t need stitches or anything. I mean – I don’t think you will.’

Maude looked up at her with anxious eyes. ‘Thank you.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Kym, ‘if he frightened you. Tyler. I’ll have a word with him. Several words. He shouldn’t have done that. You stay here with Evie. OK?’

‘OK.’

She slipped outside into the cool evening air, but there was no reply when she rang him, only his stupid voicemail, and she didn’t leave a message. When she went back into the house, Evie and Maude were sitting at the dining table, talking quietly. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.

‘Fine.’ Maude raised her hand and peeled back the kitchen roll. ‘It’s stopped bleeding.’

‘Good.’ Kym joined them at the table, feeling inexplicably weary; one evening – just a few hours, really – of being responsible for someone’s kid and she was exhausted. ‘If you want to tell Nell, then, that’s OK.’ Bloody Ty, pushing her into a corner like this. ‘I mean, if you do, then she probably won’t ask me to – you know, stay with you again. But if you want to – you should.’ She would bloody kill him. Kill him, then dump him all over again. ‘And he won’t bother us again, I can promise you that much.’

The shoe lay on the table between them and for a moment Kym almost wanted to pick it up and look at it some more, to feel the warm leather give way under her hand, maybe even feel the bite of the pin against her fingers. She frowned. ‘What is this about, then?’ she asked.

‘We found it,’ said Maude.

‘In the bedroom wall,’ said Evie. ‘Mum says it’s very old.’

‘I was going to show you,’ said Maude. ‘Only I’m not supposed to touch it. You won’t tell, will you?’

‘I dunno, Maude. Rules are rules.’ It was old, the shoe, and there was something about it that was – damaged.

‘Please.’ The kid looked frantic.

‘She’s teasing you, Maude,’ said Evie, ‘she won’t tell.’

Kym caught her eye and grinned.

Maude nodded, relieved. ‘I only wanted to make sure it was safe,’ she said.

‘Maude was telling me about the marks,’ said Evie, ‘up in the roof.’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Kym, as she stood, ‘those.’

*

Evie was standing right under the beam, her head tilted back. ‘Do you know what they are?’ she asked.

‘We were just discussing that when Ty decided to kick off,’ said Kym.

‘Are they, like, a secret?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Can we check?’

‘How?’