Nell took the laptop into the living room and curled up on the sofa. She spent a few minutes going through her emails – junk, mostly, and newsletters from the few galleries and designers she followed. She deleted most of them without even reading them. The updates from the gallery – the ones Sam always copied her into – had stopped the day Chris had gone back. Maybe there was no need to update her. Maybe everything was going to be fine.

She thought for a moment, then opening a new email, she began to type:

Hi love,

Just a quick note to say we’re fine here, apart from missing you, of course. I’d ring, or text, but Maude’s taken herself off to the attic. If you ring her later, do me a favour and make her bring the phone down to me. Mine’s still bust – obviously.

Dare I ask about Simeon Lee? The barn? I’ve not got any new emails from Sam, so is it OK to assume we’re going to get through this? We could come back, you know, even if it was just to offer moral support. The seaside isn’t much fun without you.

She stopped. There was no point in nagging. She hit the delete button and watched the cursor eat up her words.

Hi love,

Just a quick note to say we’re fine here, apart from missing you, of course. I’d ring, or text, but Maude’s taken herself off to the attic. If you ring her later, do me a favour and make her bring the phone down to me. Mine’s still bust – obviously.

Speak soon, love you,

Nell xxx

She hit send, then stood and went into the kitchen. It was foolish, she told herself, to expect a response straight away.

*

Back in the attic, Maude sat on her bed and examined the bracelet Evie had given her, running her finger gently over the moulding of the petals.

It had been OK, really, supper at Carolyn’s house. Lots of food, and all of it homemade, even dessert, because Carolyn was a proper cook, a proper mum. When she asked questions, she listened to the answers, and she was interested in people, even if she was a bit bossy.

It was funny to think of her and Nell at school, getting into trouble like that, even if Nell went on about not really remembering properly. But she did that, didn’t she? She’d got all vague when she was telling everyone how she’d met Maude’s dad; she had left bits out of that story too. She was good at that.

Thinking about her dad made her feel angry all over again; it wasn’t fair that he’d gone off and left her behind.