‘OK,’ said Chris. ‘Thanks.’ He pulled his own phone out of his pocket, frowning at the screen. ‘I’ll just give Sam a quick call – can you go and sort Maude out?’

*

Nell knocked gently on the ladder to Maude’s room, before climbing up it. ‘Hey,’ she said, ‘are we good to go?’

Maude didn’t look up, she was on her knees in front of her bag. ‘I can’t find my orange flip-flops.’

‘Are you sure you packed them?’

‘Of course I am.’

Nell decided to ignore her tone. ‘Do you really need them?’

‘Well, yeah. It’s a holiday?’

Nell knelt down, checking under the bed. ‘It’s still early in the season, you know. It might be a bit too cold for flip-flops.’

‘Cold?’ Maude looked unimpressed. ‘Honestly, this place. I don’t know why we bothered.’

‘Oh, you know. To catch up with family.’

‘Your family.’

‘Yours too, Maudie.’

There was no reply and Nell concentrated on the discarded clothes and half-read books Maude seemed to be stockpiling under her bed. ‘We have the time now, don’t we? And this way you get to go to France too. Two holidays instead of one. You lucky thing.’ Something rattled along the floorboard, and Nell picked it up; a tiny toy soldier, encrusted with mud, long forgotten by a former occupant.

‘They’re not there,’ said Maude, ‘I looked.’ She closed the bag and gazed around the bedroom, dissatisfied. ‘Do I have to go?’

‘Sorry, what?’

‘To the party. Dad says I’m not grounded any more’ – an expression something like defiance crossed her face – ‘but actually, I don’t think I want to go.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know. It’ll be all adults, boring.’ Maude could get like this sometimes, anxious about strangers, new places, new things.

‘You don’t know that.’ Nell put the soldier on top of the wooden trunk, wiped the dust off her hands.

‘Is Evie going?’

‘I’m not sure.’ And if she was, she might be old enough to drink, she’d hardly want to hang out with Maude all evening. ‘But there’ll be other kids. Probably.’

‘I’m not a kid. I could stay here, on my own.’

‘I don’t know, sweetheart. We’d have to have a chat with your dad.’

‘Yeah. Whatever.’ Maude sat on the bed, defeated.

‘Why don’t you make a move?’ Nell stood up, brushing her knees. ‘We can always buy a new pair, if they don’t turn up.’

Maude didn’t reply, but began shoving her feet into her red trainers.

‘What else do you need?’

‘Nothing.’ Her hair tumbled over her face, obscuring her expression as she tied the grubby laces.

‘Maude . . .’

‘What?’

She should ask about the phone. If Maude had taken it they needed to clear the air; they should try to work things out, just the two of them. Maude was very still, her shoulders unnaturally tense.