‘If you like. But keep them at the sink, yeah? Just pick out the pieces you like and put them on a tea towel.’

Nell had left all the pale pieces in the bowl. Maude ran the cold tap for a little while, for no other reason than to watch the light bounce off the glassy pebbles.

She could sort of see why Nell liked this bit so much, why – once she was done – she’d look at the order she’d created, then sweep them altogether and start again. She glanced over towards the table; Nell was drawing, her head bent over her sketch pad. The stuff she made was quite nice, she supposed, if you liked that sort of thing. And Nell had used to be all right, too, when Maude was little. She’d always been kind, friendly, without trying to get all mumsy with her, and they’d got on OK really. Then Maude had found out, about Nell, about her dad; the big secret they had all kept from her.

She didn’t want to think about that right now.

She wished she could think of a way to get back at them, at her.

Maude ran her fingers through the water. There were a few quartz pebbles she had slipped in with the sea glass. She was forever trying to get Nell to use them in her pieces. She never did though. Maude picked one out, a tiny perfect egg, a pale blue-ish white, veined in grey. She put it on the window ledge and watched the lustre fade as it dried. She found a second, then a third. She picked them up and slipped them into her pocket. Nell wouldn’t miss them.

She wiped her hands on her jeans and opened the kitchen door, it was cool in the shadow of the house, and the stone was damp and gritty under her bare feet. You could hear the street from here, but it was a dull far-away sound, the yard was very quiet and still. The drying ground didn’t look like anyone had touched it for years and Maude edged a little closer, the skin on the back of her neck rising into goosebumps. It felt like—

‘What are you up to, Maudie?’ Nell was in the doorway, her arms folded, still cross.

‘Nothing.’ Maude edged past her stepmother back into the house.

It felt like when you played hide and seek, and you knew someone was there but you couldn’t see them, you could only feel them. She slid her hand into her pocket and gave one of the quartz pebbles a quick squeeze, it felt solid, real, comforting.

Nell closed the kitchen door. ‘We agreed, didn’t we,’ she began, but Maude cut her off.