And, she had to admit, it had sort of been her own fault. Tess had left the garden door unlocked that morning, when she’d poked her nose out to see how cold it was and discovered it was pouring buckets. Note to self: always lock the garden door. Even in the day-time.

But then Colin seemed so sad. “I’ve offended you,” he said. “I didn’t mean to,” he added. “Mother thought we could take the carriage out and I could show you around. If your aunt approved that is.”

Max’s eyes lit up. Maybe he was going to see the Changing of the Guard, after all. And it did look as though the sun was shining. Max set all the books down on the floor by the desk. “I’d like that, Tess,” he said and sat down next to Colin.

There was something strange about the way Max and Colin looked when Tess saw them sitting on the couch, right next to each other. It was as if they were in a different dimension from each other. Not exactly. They were sitting right next to each other, but it didn’t seem as though their arms were touching, even though they were so close to each other and Max had a habit of using hand gestures. It was weird. As Tess looked at them, from her vantage point, it seemed as if they’d both been in the same picture, in a magazine or something, or a photograph, but someone had ripped it and when they’d put it back together it didn’t look as if they (or the couch) were quite in sync or at the right angle. As if there was a distortion or a distance between them that couldn’t be bridged. Even though it looked as if they were sitting right next to each other. It was odd.

Tess shut her eyes for a moment because she knew she was imagining things. She remembered she’d had a headache that morning when she woke up so maybe her eyes were just tired. She hadn’t had a lot of sleep the night before.

But then she looked over at them and it got even stranger still. Colin was very pale. Almost paler by the moment. “Are you all right?” asked Tess.

The boy didn’t answer. He just got paler still. “Are you all right, Colin?”

Max reached out to touch him, but it was as if his hand seemed to go right through Colin’s arm. As if he had become transparent or he wasn’t really there, as if . . .

Max jumped up from the couch, scared, as if it was something he could catch. Frightened, as he felt a cold shiver of fear running up his spine.

Colin got paler still. More transparent, as if he was almost fading from view.

Max stepped back even further, as if he was trying to get away.