Izzy had her own bedroom because she refused to share with Alex and Rory. Taisie was on her side there. She would rather pull her nails out than put up with those two. She pushed the door open.

‘Are you awake, Iz?’

‘Taisie?’ Izzy’s voice came out of the darkness.

As her eyes adjusted Taisie saw that Izzy’s were wide open, her fingers clutching the sheets at her throat. Her sister reminded her of Helen Burns from Jane Eyre. Taisie wrinkled her nose at the duck-down pillows. They smelled like they’d been around for half a century – knowing the Moodys and their sacrosanct heirlooms, they probably had – and the feathers tended to stick through and scratch your cheek.

In the darkness, Izzy perched beside her, leaning over her skinny knees and picking at her sky-blue toenail varnish.

‘I want you to do something for me,’ Taisie said.

‘What?’

‘I need to stop the game with Nick, but I can’t just go up to him and say it’s over. I need a distraction to get me out of this mess without losing face; something dramatic that’ll make me look good. They all hate me, even Pansy and Freya, although they pretend they don’t. It’s gone too far, Iz. No one will forgive me unless I do something amazing. If you help me it’ll all be forgotten, and we can go back to normal and start having fun.’

‘You mean we can play with Nick again?’

‘Yes, of course. If you do what I tell you.’

She woke because Izzy was shaking her. ‘I don’t want to do it.’

She stretched out, yawning, her thoughts muzzy. ‘Nothing’s going to happen to you. I promise.’

‘Why does it have to be me? Why not Rory?’

‘Because I asked you. But you obviously don’t care about me.’

‘Of course I do. That’s not fair.’

‘You’d rather be with Nick bloody Ritchie.’

‘No I wouldn’t!’

Wide awake now, Taisie sat up. Her eiderdown had slid to the floor. She reached for it, and pulled it round her like an Indian squaw. ‘Yes you would. You don’t want to help me, but you’d do anything for him even when you know that he’s a two-timing bastard.’

‘I can’t just stop liking him.’

‘Why not? I have. Do you have a crush on him, Iz?’

Izzy’s eyes filled with tears so Taisie held her. She could feel her knobbly spine. She wondered what it felt like to be so fragile. Men loved that, didn’t they? It was a pity she was so robust.

‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Izzy. I had massive crushes on boys when I was your age.’

‘Did you?’ Izzy hugged her tighter, pressing her cheek against Taisie’s.