‘He’s filming me!’ Lucy shouted, jabbing a finger at her brother. She swiped at him, trying to grab the camcorder from him as I held them apart.

Daniel dodged away from his sister’s grasp, still squealing with nervous laughter.

‘She’s crazy!’

‘Tell him to stop filming me!’

‘Daniel,’ I said, ‘you shouldn’t film people unless they’re OK with it. Give me the camera, please.’

‘She’s just being moody. No one else minds when I do it.’

‘Well, your sister minds. Did you ask her permission?’

‘Yes. Sort of.’

‘Liar!’ Lucy said. ‘You never even said you were filming! I was just sunbathing and then you were there with the camera!’

‘Daniel, you’ve been told not to film her, but you did it anyway. Why did you do that?’

‘I was just doing a funny video. It’s only for fun.’

‘It’s not fun for Lucy, is it?’

There was a tremor in Lucy’s voice. She was on the verge of tears.

‘Tell him to delete it, Mum.’

I took the camera from my son’s hand. ‘Go and help Izzy lay the table for dinner, Daniel. I’ll come and talk to you in a minute.’

He skipped off towards the kitchen with a quick backwards glance to make sure he was no longer being pursued. But Lucy had collapsed onto a chair, all the fight gone out of her. She put her head in her hands and started to cry.

I sat down on the arm of the chair and put an arm around her. ‘What’s up, Lucy? It’s just your brother being silly.’

‘Don’t like people having pictures of me, ones I don’t know about.’

‘Look. We’ll tape over what he’s just done, OK? I’ll delete it, no one will see it.’

‘No one?’

‘I promise.’

Her voice was so low it was almost a whisper. ‘Thanks, Mum.’

‘Is it just that, Lucy? Is there something else going on?’

She shook her head but said nothing.

‘Are you sure?’

She disengaged from our embrace and wiped a tear away with the heel of her hand. ‘I’m going to my room for a bit.’

I watched her go, still wondering about her reaction. There was regular friction between Lucy and Daniel, who were no different from siblings the world over, and Daniel seemed to get a kick out of winding his sister up, but her reaction this time seemed to be on a different level.