‘Maudie?’ Chris said. ‘Have a drink of water.’

She shook her head, then coughed.

‘It’s OK,’ Nell said. ‘Just do as your dad said and—’

Maude leant forward and spat her food back onto her plate; half chewed flesh, grey and glistening, but with no discernible bones, not that Nell could see, anyway.

‘Jeez, Maude,’ said Chris.

‘I could feel them,’ said Maude, raising a hand to her throat, and she shot Nell a look of pure resentment, ‘inside.’

‘Brown bread,’ said Nell, before there was yet another scene.

‘What?’

‘Brown bread,’ Nell said again. ‘My gran always said to eat brown bread with kippers, and that way if any of the little bones get stuck, the bread sort of sweeps them away.’ She looked at the mess on Maude’s plate, and she could feel it too, a prickling sensation at the back of her throat, as if something was caught there.

Maude took a tentative bite of bread and began to chew.

Nell looked down at her plate, concentrating on not thinking about the prickling, which seemed to be getting worse.

‘Good girl,’ said Chris.

Maude regarded them both suspiciously, then picked up her knife and fork and began to prod at the fish again.

Nell took a sip of water. The whole house was going to stink of smoked kipper, she thought, despite the open windows. But at least it was masking the other smell, that scent of damp, decaying earth that bothered her so. She cleared her throat softly and cut into her fish again, the bones were as fine as hair, she reminded herself; they couldn’t possibly do any harm.

*

Maude struggled through the meal. She quite liked the taste, she supposed, but that thing with the bread didn’t really work; she was sure she could feel all the tiny bones scratching her throat every time she swallowed.

‘Can I go upstairs now?’ she asked, pushing her plate to one side.

‘I suppose so,’ Nell said. ‘Don’t you want to go out again?’

‘Not really.’

‘Maude.’ Her dad used his warning tone.

She took her plate to the sink. If you craned your neck you could almost see the edge of the cliff.

‘It’s fine,’ said Nell, ‘do what you want to do, sweetheart.’

‘OK.’ Maude made a point of rinsing her plate before leaving

it in the sink, and going upstairs. She wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do, but at least she could get away from them both for a bit.

*