When we got back, Pa was closeted with someone in his study. Later I found him sitting on the bench in the garden with a beer bottle in one hand, cigarette in another, his dog collar loose around his neck. When I sat down beside him, he seemed barely to notice.

The sky was a deepening blue and for some minutes we watched the bats as they swooped above the garden in front of us. They’d frightened me when they’d first arrived that summer, but since Eli told me that each bat could eat several thousand insects every night, I’d decided to welcome them. Wasps, gnats and mosquitoes were new entries in my countryside ‘not good’ column, so bats were my heroes now.

At last Pa looked up. ‘Have a nice swim, love?’

‘Lovely, thank you,’ I lied. ‘The lake was beautiful. And so cooling.’

‘No dragons then?’

I smiled, to humour him. ‘Who were you with when we got back?’

A shadow fell over his face. ‘Mr Blackman, of course.’

‘Any news from the bank?’

‘The money is definitely missing. We’ll have to report it to the diocese.’

‘What happens then?’

‘I’m not entirely sure, my darling. But no doubt they will have to investigate. It’s a lot of money, after all. And after that, who knows?’

‘But where’s it gone?’

He shrugged and took out another cigarette. As he lit it, I noticed his hands trembling.

‘And if they can’t find out?’

‘Could be the end of our village adventure, my darling.’

‘Whatever do you mean, the end?’

He shook his head. ‘It’s Henry’s word against mine, I’m afraid. And he’s got the trust of the committee. Not to mention that it seems the money only started to disappear after we arrived.’

‘They couldn’t think that you . . .?’

‘They might, they might.’ His voice seemed to crack and he took another swig of beer, upending the bottle. ‘Time for another, I think,’ he said, getting to his feet and leaving me sitting in the growing darkness, my thoughts whirling. Whatever would happen if Pa was accused of theft? Could he actually lose his job? Where would we go, how would we live?

We’d been in the village for nine months and my list was growing. It was more evenly balanced now, but some of the negatives were really serious ones:

THE UGLY DRAGON

by Molly Goddard

Chapter 5: About friendship