“They locked him up just for going out of town?”

“Going past a boundary. It’s dangerous. Puts the whole of Fennis Wick at risk. There are wanderers out there – I mean, um, I mean, there are dangerous people out there.” Shut up, Maggie, shut up.

Una grinned a purple smile. “You mean dangerous people like me?”

“No, I didn’t mean that, I—”

“Weird, isn’t it, how you think there are dangerous people outside your town, but we think there are dangerous people inside it.”

It was kind of weird, now she put it like that.

The bag handle was pressing into the soft bit of my fingers. I pulled it up on to my shoulder.

Una frowned at the hawthorn. “My dad told me not to get too close to your town. It’s an unknown quantity, that’s what he said, but he never mentioned anything about boundaries. So how d’you know this particular hedge is a boundary? Just looks like any old hedge to me.”

Any old hedge? Was she joking?

“I mean, how d’you tell the difference between a boundary hedge and an ordinary one?”

“Well, it’s all in the song, isn’t it?” I said.

“The song?”

“Y’know. The boundary song.”

“The boundary song?”

“You don’t know the boundary song?”

She stared at me.

“Are you spinning me up?” I said. “It’s the first song anyone ever learns. Devvy Chowdhry was singing it before he could crawl. He was a late crawler, mind.”

“Well, good for Devvy Chowdhry. I’m not spinning you up – I don’t know it. I’m not from round here. I never learned it.”

S’pose she’s right. You wouldn’t know it, would you, not if you hadn’t grown up here.

“Sing it for me, Maggie, go on.”

“Sing it? On my own?” I was going to look like a proper la-la singing the boundary song on my own out here in the cemetery.

“Yeah, go on, I want to hear it. Please?”

She was serious. She really did want to hear it.

“Well, OK. It goes like this, um…” I took a breath. “Hello there, dear partner, how are you this morning—” But Una was grinning now and I fell into giggles.

“Don’t stop!” said Una. “I know the tune! It’s the same as ‘The Ash Grove’. Grandad used to sing it to me. Down yonder green valley, where streamlets meander.” She sang the words. “See? It’s the same! Don’t stop, Maggie.”

“All right, all right, I’ll try again.” I swallowed. “Hello there, dear partner, how are… Hold on, do you want me to do the actions too?”

“There are actions? Of course I want the actions!”