Evie couldn’t bear to look at her. ‘Have you told Dad?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

That was something at least. She was used to being a disappointment to her mother, but for her father to find out – she felt sick just thinking about it.

‘I’d blame Kym Swales,’ Carolyn continued, ‘but we both know this has been going on for some time. Unless, of course, there’s something else there you’re not telling me?’

‘No,’ said Evie.

‘I thought not.’

‘Please don’t tell.’

‘And why shouldn’t I? After the way you’ve been behaving?’

‘I’ll stop. I’ll stay away from Kym—’

‘Well, you say that now, don’t you?’ said Carolyn. ‘But how do I know you’ll keep your word?’

‘Please, Mum.’ Barely audible now. ‘We’re not even – we had an argument.’

Carolyn didn’t seem to hear her. ‘I don’t know what it is with girls these days,’ she went on. ‘Nell can barely control Maude, and she’s what – not yet thirteen?’

‘I thought you liked her, Nell. I thought you liked them both.’

‘She lost it. The shoe,’ said Carolyn, ‘can you imagine? No sense of responsibility.’ She shook her head. ‘Well, I think the best thing now is for you to tidy up this mess, then do some actual revision. I’ll call you when I start dinner, you can come and help; we can talk some more then.’ She stood and looked around the room, the blue folder and Kym’s notes seemingly forgotten. ‘OK?’

‘OK.’

Once her mother had gone, Evie counted to a hundred. Then she began to sort through the papers, putting all of Kym’s notes in order.

The pins, she thought, ranged in cases in the museum. Your old house.

She stopped and looked down at the papers. There’d be a way of checking, surely. Her parents had never owned Elder House during her lifetime, she was certain of that. But if they had before – say twenty years ago, before she was born; wouldn’t there be some sort of paper trail?

She could wait until her dad got home; she could ask him then.

All those children.

She closed the folder.

She couldn’t wait that long.

*

The living room was growing dim and Nell closed down the local history forum she had been browsing. She was scrolling through more search results when an email notification pinged onscreen. It read as though he hadn’t seen her message at all.

Hi love,

Just a quick note to say we’ve put in a response, filed it with the planning people and sent a copy to Simeon Lee and the upshot is everything is on hold until the middle of next month. So, I’ll be back – tomorrow evening, I suppose – depends on traffic, and I’ll ring later. Sorry, got to go, love to Maude. X

At last.