‘You poor child,’ she said, stroking my hair. ‘So young, and so much to contend with. But I’m sure it will all settle down for your father before long. Just a few teething problems. Only to be expected, in a new parish and all.’

I longed to believe her.

That evening I showed Jimmy my dragon story. I’d copied it out neatly and stitched it between two pieces of cardboard, on which I’d rather ineptly painted a fierce dragon on the front cover, and a crocodile on the back. Jimmy was utterly delighted with it, insisting that I read the whole thing to him.

But as I turned to go, his face fell. The smile had disappeared and his eyes, normally so bright and cheerful, seemed to droop at the edges. It was usually only when he was unwell that we ever saw him like this. I went to sit down beside him on the bed again and put my arm round him.

‘What’s up, Jimmy?’

‘Eli.’

‘I know. I’m worried too.’

He looked doubtful. ‘His hut?’

‘But we’re doing what we can, all right?’

He shook his head violently, screwing up his face. ‘No, no, no . . .’

He began to sob. It was all I could do not to burst into tears again too. I couldn’t bear to see him so unhappy. With Pa so preoccupied and absent, it felt as though the troubles of the world were resting on my shoulders and everything was falling apart.

I took a breath and pushed down my tears, summoning the most reassuring tone that I could muster. ‘Look, we’re doing our best, Jim. We just have to wait and see.’

19

After that, everything changed.

It started with the weather. Next morning we woke to discover that a curtain of heavy grey cloud now covered the sun, which had shone almost unceasingly for weeks on end. It should have brought relief, but there was still not a single breath of wind. It was swelteringly hot and so humid that the slightest activity brought you out in a sweat.

Mrs D prophesied that a storm was on its way, and it certainly felt as though the world was on hold, just waiting for something to happen. ‘Heaven knows, we need something to clear the air around here.’ She turned to me. ‘Cheer up, Molly. You look like a thundercloud yourself.’

‘Sorry. I didn’t sleep very well.’ I’d lain in bed for hours, thinking about Kit. Our plan had seemed so exciting when we’d been talking about it together, but now it felt as though we were about to step off a cliff into the unknown. Most of all, I worried about Pa. The more I thought about it, the more I was coming to think that occupying the hut was a really bad idea, but having started it, I felt duty-bound to Kit, Miss Calver and Eli to see it through.