‘Weren’t you friends, then? I thought you were friends? When you went on that school trip?’

‘There were lots of us. And Nell – everyone wanted to be friends with her, you know? She was the kind of person who never seemed to have to work for any of it – exams, friends, boyfriends. She never really took any notice of me, apart from . . .’ She stared at the shoe. ‘It was my idea to bunk off that day,’ she said. ‘I didn’t care about the shop – well, I did, but I wanted . . . to be the leader as well, for a change, you know?’

‘Yes.’

‘The funny thing is, I got into trouble along with everyone else, but your mum and Laura and Mark got most of the blame. Everyone thought it was their idea. I even think they did, in the end; it was as if no one else was cool enough to think of it.’ She looked sad. ‘Shall we pop this back in its box?’ said Carolyn. ‘Keep it safe?’

‘I don’t have it any more. I gave it back to Nell – only I put the wrong shoe in.’

‘Really?’ She looked impressed.

‘You won’t tell, will you?’

Carolyn seemed to think about this. ‘Not if you don’t want me to.’

‘Gina says you could use it to – make a wish. Sort of.’

‘A wish?’

‘Yeah, like make a deal with it.’

‘Really?’ Carolyn looked at the shoe critically. ‘This little thing?’

‘It would be cool, wouldn’t it? If you could. If you could – make things happen.’

‘And what would you make happen, if you could?’

It was as if Carolyn was playing along, humouring her, and Maude could feel that she might cry again. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I tried to find out more about it, but there’s nothing in the books and I’m not allowed . . . Last night,’ she went on, ‘when the lights went out, and I was thinking that it would serve Nell right if . . . and – then she fell downstairs.’

‘I see.’ Carolyn weighed the shoe in her hand, assessing it.

‘But then I got hurt too. And I don’t really know – Nell wasn’t carrying a glass, but there was glass on the floor. And Nell got – like – really hurt.’

‘Did she?’

‘Yeah. I heard her tell Dad.’

‘Well.’ Carolyn looked at her thoughtfully. ‘That is odd.’

‘What was she like? At school?’

Carolyn didn’t answer at first; she kept staring at the shoe, and Maude had the feeling that she might like to make a wish too. ‘It was a long time ago,’ she said. She looked up at her. ‘Shall I do your hair for you? Brush it? Braid it? I used to do that for Evie, but now she’s far too grown up. And just between you and me, I miss that a bit.’