Sean glared at him, the anger still etched on his face.

‘Aye,’ he grunted. ‘Come on, then.’

With each of the men taking an arm, they propped Jake gently on his feet and began walking him back to the villa.

Chapter 60

60

Daniel

Daniel couldn’t get off to sleep. He’d tried all the things his dad suggested – counting backwards from a thousand, making his Christmas list, imagining the motorway journey to Grandad’s house in Reading – but none of them worked. There had been too much noise, for one thing. Voices that sounded like they were laughing or having one of those really loud and long and boring conversations that grown-ups seemed to do a lot when they drank wine. Then there had been the shouting.

He swung his legs out of bed, took something from his bedside drawer and padded across to the door, the tiled floor cool against the soles of his bare feet.

The corridor was dark, just the little nightlight glowing near the stairs. He walked across and two doors along, hoping that her door would be open a little bit. But it was shut. He stopped and listened, pressing his ear to the smooth wood. Nothing.

Please don’t be locked.

When he was small he would sometimes do this when he had a bad dream, when Mum and Dad weren’t in bed yet. He would creep across the landing and climb into his sister’s bed, and she would make up silly stories that made him forget the bad dream so he would be able to go back to sleep again. He always woke up in his own bed again the next morning, which was kind of a bit like magic. She hadn’t done it for a long time though, not since she started getting tall. That was when she’d started locking her bedroom door. He wasn’t even allowed in her bedroom at home any more – it made her go properly mad. But they weren’t at home, so maybe she wouldn’t mind.

He pushed down on her door handle and it opened with a soft click.

Daniel stood in the doorway, one hand behind his back. It was quieter on this side of the villa, away from the swimming pool. The room was dark, the only light from the soft glow of a phone screen.

‘Lucy?’ he whispered.

There was no reply. As his eyes began to adjust to the light, he made out the line of her back, turned to him as she lay in the big double bed. She was glued to her phone. As usual.

‘Lucy?’ he said again.

She shifted slightly, so he could see the left side of her face illuminated by the phone’s pale glow.

‘What?’ she said sharply.

‘Are you asleep?’

‘Obviously not.’

‘I couldn’t sleep with the grown-ups all shouting downstairs.’

‘What do you want, Daniel?’

He started towards her bed.

‘It’s a surprise.’