Hannah is shuffling her feet. She looks up at her mother, then at me. ‘I didn’t mean to upset her,’ she says. ‘I only told Leila.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ I say with a bright smile. I don’t want her to feel awkward around me. Lottie needs her friends. ‘It doesn’t matter in the slightest.’

NICK

July 2000

LATER ON, THEY GO DOWN TO THE RIVER WITH HIS dad, Angus and Sean. Jess, Cora and Lorna go shopping in Totnes. Nick wishes the girls had gone with them. It would have been more fun.

Izzy is ignoring him again. He feels sadder about that than anything else. That she is so under Taisie’s thumb is scary. Even Alex, who he thought was reasonably normal, hasn’t got the guts to defy his sister. This is a family he has practically grown up with. He’s been in and out of the Wellses’ house since before he can remember; he’s bounced on their beds, watched cartoons on their sofa, slept top to tail with Taisie. He’s seen her throw up spectacularly after eating a whole packet of those pink wafer biscuits. And now, it’s as though they don’t know him. They’re keeping up this ridiculous charade, and the frustration feels as though it’s bubbling in his stomach. His spots have got worse, when they should have got better in the sun, and all he does is look forward to his next meal.

The river is benign, though they’ve been warned that it can be treacherous when it’s swollen. He sticks with the adults; the kids are no use to him. The girls swan around in their bikinis as if they own the place; which of course Pansy and Freya do.