Milly wasn’t happy about all this; she liked things the way they were. Dad was comfortably loaded because of his furniture business, and up to now that had meant that nothing was ever expected of her. She didn’t have to get involved in the outside world, and she liked that fine. She didn’t want to be pushed toward this business contact of her dad’s; Javier repulsed her.

Belle was closer to her than anyone else right now. Her best friend in all the world. Belle had always been good to her, tried to include her in things, even coming to her defence when Amanda and Gillian, that snobby pair from the stables, had bullied her, grabbing her school bag and emptying it into a ditch, and then nicking the hard hat Nula’d bought her in the hope she’d get into riding like Belle, which of course she hadn’t.

Milly would never forget Belle giving those two the walloping they deserved and ordering them to hand back the hat. Faced with an infuriated Belle instead of soft quiet Milly, they’d backed off and never bothered either of them again.

‘It must be nice,’ said Milly, sprawling out lazily on the grass and staring at Belle’s face, turned up to the sun, ‘to be pretty.’

Belle looked at Milly. ‘You’re pretty,’ she objected.

Milly gave a small sad smile. ‘No I’m not. I’m a dog.’

‘That’s not true,’ said Belle, turning toward her, hitting Milly with the full wattage of that beautiful face of hers. ‘You’ve got lovely eyes.’

Damned with faint praise, thought Milly.

‘Oh don’t bullshit me. They’re like piss-holes in the snow. I don’t actually know what Nipper sees in me.’ But really she did know. Nipper liked sex; and Milly put out.

‘He sees a lovely person,’ said Belle. She was staring off into the distance, licking the last of her lolly from the stick, then tossing it aside and sighing. ‘None of the boys I fancy will approach me, whereas the ones I can’t stand seem determined to have a go, if only to prove that they’re not the losers everyone thinks they are.’

Milly had to smile at that. ‘You’re so full of crap,’ she said, flopping back onto the grass and staring up at the clouds scudding across the sky. ‘I thought you and Nige Pope were getting it on these days?’

Nige Pope was tall, gangly, red-haired and sweet. He was the brainiest boy in the school and destined, everyone thought, for great things.

Belle frowned. ‘What, Einstein? We were. He’s lovely. But most of the time he’s too busy with his textbooks to bother about me.’

‘You’ll meet someone nice, one of these days,’ said Milly, rubbing Belle’s arm consolingly.