Seren stared. ‘There wasn’t before…’

‘Well, it’s a magic Box, that’s for sure. Look.’

He peeled something small and brown off and it slipped from his fingers and fluttered to the floor.

Before Seren could move, the Crow had hopped down, he grabbed it in his beak and was staring at it.

‘Kek kek,’ he gasped.

‘What is it?’

The Crow didn’t answer for a moment. Then he said, in a rather strangled voice, ‘Nothing. Just an old photograph.’

‘Let me see.’

‘No. I…’

But Seren had already snatched it. She and Tomos looked at it eagerly.

It was very old, all sepia-brown and faded. It showed a man. He was thin and hook-nosed and dressed in old-fashioned dark clothes and he was standing in a garden. It looked like a rose garden because there was a rose in his fingers. A white rose with a long straight stem.

‘Totally uninteresting,’ the Crow gasped, turning his back on it. ‘Right, let’s have an early lunch.’

‘What’s the matter with you?’ Seren folded her arms. ‘Do you recognise him?’

‘Of course not! Never seen him before in my life.’

Tomos looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

She nodded. ‘We think you do! What’s going on? Tell us!’

The Crow preened and huffed and kek kekked for a full minute. ‘Don’t order me about, child. This Box is clearly a trap set for us and…’

‘Maybe it is. But it’s more than that. You know about this Midnight Swan, don’t you?’

The Crow looked down and tapped a talon.

‘He does, you know,’ Tomos said.

‘I might.’

‘So tell us.’

‘I can’t. It’s … not for children.’

Seren snorted. ‘Tell us. Or next time your clockwork runs down I won’t even bother winding you up.’

The Crow looked so unhappy she felt a bit of a bully. So she said, ‘Please! We’d really love to help.’

But at that moment the lunch gong rang from below. The Crow looked heartily relieved. ‘Ah. Now. You have to go. Wrap that Box up, Seren, in that shawl. And lock the door.’

She didn’t move. ‘You have to trust us. We can’t help you otherwise. It can’t be that terrible, can it? It might help us think how to get this Box open and find your heart’s desires. To get you back to your human shape so that you can wear slippers and eat toasted cheese again.’

The Crow sighed. ‘You are a most obstinate and annoying little girl. But, well … you are right. I have … er … come across the Midnight Swan before. It’s not a very flattering story but I suppose I will have to tell you. Meet me after luncheon down at the summerhouse by the lake.’

‘Promise?’

‘I promise.’

‘You won’t lock yourself in the wardrobe?’

‘No. Now go, before Denzil comes looking for you.’

Lunch was a chatty meal; Tomos and Lady Mair were still full of the Fair and the things they had seen and done. Seren ate her cawl and then was glad to see the cool dish of lemon syllabub, her favourite thing ever. She ate it, savouring every spoonful.