She didn’t wake again until morning. She rolled over in bed and looked at the window, the blue curtains wafted in the breeze. It was a bright day, as far as she could tell, no fog, at least.

She fell asleep again, briefly, deeply, but not for long, not long enough to dream. Distantly, she heard Chris’s phone sound, its ringtone an old-fashioned bell, no one answered it, though.

Someone was knocking at the door.

She didn’t move at first; if there was no answer, they would, she reasoned, give up and leave. Which struck her as a wonderful idea.

Only they didn’t.

‘Nell! Nell, are you up yet?’ Chris’s voice drifting up from the bottom of the stairs.

She opened her eyes; she’d overslept.

She threw back the duvet. ‘Yes. Just a minute.’ Grabbing yesterday’s jeans and T-shirt, struggling to pull them on. She ran her fingers through her hair.

She could at least leave the room tidy, she thought, pulling the duvet roughly into place, and then she noticed it; a long scratch on the wall behind the bed. They must have knocked the bed post against it. The thought was followed by a flush of embarrassment, then guilt. How would they explain that to the woman in the letting office?

She bent over the bed and looked more closely. It wasn’t a scratch, it was a crack, running vertically down one panel. She traced it with the tip of her finger, maybe they had overlooked it and it had been there all along; maybe the old house wasn’t quite so picture perfect after all.

‘Nell!’

‘Yes! I’m here!’

She left the bedroom door open, and ran downstairs.

*

‘We thought you’d like some brownies, well, blondies, really. I always make too many,’ said Carolyn. ‘Raspberry and white chocolate.’

‘That’s very kind of you.’

Nell tugged at her T-shirt, still trying to catch her breath. Her phone lay on the kitchen counter, and she couldn’t help glancing at Maude who was hovering beside it, not bothering to disguise her interest in the foil-covered plate Carolyn was holding. Chris was filling the kettle at the sink, evidently Carolyn and Evie, who was standing silently by the open door looking mildly embarrassed, were staying. Nell took the proffered plate and unwrapped it. ‘Would you like one of these?’

‘Goodness, no,’ Carolyn said. ‘Those are for you and Chris, Maude too, if she likes them.’

‘Yes, please,’ said Maude, helping herself. Nell found herself looking at Chris for some sort of cue. She was fairly certain that people who were grounded didn’t get to eat blondies for breakfast, but he made sure not to catch her eye.

She wondered where the phone had come from, who had replaced it. ‘It’s very kind of you,’ she said.