Ben glanced towards one of the windows. It was barely the middle of the afternoon, but the sky was darkening already, and the rain that had been forecast surely wasn’t far away. And something else was making him hesitate, too. Lance still hadn’t said a word. He wasn’t gloating, as Ben might have expected him to. And he didn’t appear angry either, again as would have been his right. Planting the photographs in Father Steiner’s room had been his responsibility as well, and Ben had made him look foolish. Unless that was the reason he was looking so anxious. Maybe he was in Callum’s bad books, too.

‘Look, I’m not going to try to change your mind,’ said Callum. ‘I promise. Here, take these if it will make you feel better.’ He extended his arm, offering Ben the stack of photographs. ‘Bring them with you. I’ve got my Zippo. We can burn them when we get to the woods. Forget they ever existed.’

Tentatively, half expecting Callum to whip his hand away at any moment, Ben reached. His fingers closed around the photographs, and Callum relinquished them with a smile.

‘Come on,’ he said, as though the matter was settled. ‘Melissa’s waiting for us downstairs. And if anyone asks where we’re going, we’ll tell them … we’ll tell them we’re bored and we’re going to play a game.’

‘What game?’ said Ben, suddenly wary and remembering the last time Callum had invited him to play one of his ‘games’.

‘I don’t know,’ Callum responded, as though oblivious to Ben’s hesitancy. ‘But if we’re going to the woods … how about hide-and-seek?’

No one did stop them to ask where they were going. They heard one or two voices drifting out of the common room on their way past, but there was nobody in the quad as they crossed towards the archway that would lead them to the rear of the building, and the grounds themselves were deserted. The air was utterly still, and though the clouds appeared to be thickening, there was no sign of any rain. Maybe they would escape a downpour yet.

Ben and Callum walked slightly ahead. After greeting Ben with an uneasy smile – which Ben put down to her embarrassment at having kissed him – Melissa fell in beside Lance, and the closer they got to the woods, the further the two of them dropped behind. Ben had the distinct impression that their eyes were fixed on the back of his head, though every time he glanced behind him, they were conspicuously looking towards the ground. There was the occasional hiss of whispered conversation, and although Ben couldn’t catch what they were talking about, he was reminded of the time he’d overheard the two of them arguing in the darkroom.

‘So what made you change your mind?’ said Callum as they walked.