Maude made a point of walking quickly and not looking back; it wasn’t as if she needed them. She wasn’t a little kid anymore. She reached the steps up to the little pier and sat on one of the low wooden benches; she had kept some of the things she’d found and was busy inspecting her treasure when they caught up with her.

‘What have you got there, Maudie?’ her dad asked.

‘Nothing.’ She shoved everything in her jacket pocket as she stood. ‘Can we go up onto the cliff now? Can we go and look at the abbey?’

He rolled his eyes, and puffed out his cheeks as if she was being unreasonable, but he wasn’t going to say no, not when he was trying so hard to make out everything was all right.

*

When they finally decided to head for home, the church clock was striking the hour, and the sun had vanished. They walked slowly down the street, pausing at the entrance to the yard; the fog had reached the town and the air was thick and damp.

As they walked up the steps, Nell shivered, suddenly aware that none of them were properly dressed for this weather, for the dull unpredictable days of early summer.

Chris had insisted they buy kippers for lunch.

*

‘You can see their faces,’ Maude said, unwrapping the grease-proof paper, ‘it’s gross.’

‘More for Nell and me, then.’

‘Hmm.’ She extended a grubby finger and gingerly lifted one of the fish. ‘How do you cook it?’

‘Technically, it’s cooked already,’ said Chris, ‘but I’ll fry them up to warm them.’

‘Or grill them,’ said Nell, looking up from the glass she was arranging on the dining table, ‘and open the door and windows maybe, so you don’t stink the whole house out.’

Chris grinned at her, then whispered something in Maude’s ear which made her laugh, and Nell turned her attention back to her sea glass. She thought she might take a photo. She turned on the overhead lights, but that didn’t help; they seemed to turn everything yellow, and as she was considering what to do next, they flickered gently, a warning.

‘Fine,’ she said softly, turning the lights back off. ‘Fine. Can you guys call me when the food’s ready? I’m just going to take these upstairs.’

‘Sure,’ said Chris, barely bothering to look up.

*

The light was better in the bedroom, if she balanced the glass on the window ledge. She’d left her phone charging by the bed, using the cable Maude had begrudgingly loaned her. She unplugged it, checked her messages, decided she could safely ignore most of them, and took a couple of shots of her finds.