‘Come on, let’s get you home,’ I said, taking his arm. ‘You need to eat some supper and get a good night’s sleep.’

Soon afterwards Jimmy arrived back, beaming from ear to ear, clasping a bunch of daisies. ‘Love you,’ he said, presenting them to me with a little bow. I tried to smile, and arranged them in an eggcup as the centrepiece for our supper. How could I feel cross with my brother when it was Pa who’d been the irresponsible one, who had failed to take care of him?

Once they had both gone to bed I sat out in the garden for a while, listening to the evening bird chorus, which I usually loved. But even that could not soothe the worries churning in my head. Through all that had happened to us, Pa had always been the single strong and reliable person in my life. If he weakened or cracked, where would that leave Jimmy and me?

Nothing happened at once, of course; it never does. It’s only when you look back on it – weeks or even months later – that you realise it was the start of the horrible things that followed.

It was a village of just a few hundred people, and everyone knew everyone else. What we innocent new arrivals hadn’t yet discovered was that, in some people’s minds at least, knowing someone does not mean you owe them any loyalty, or even kindness. Some people have other priorities, although heaven knows it’s sometimes almost impossible to work out what they are, and why.

What we had also failed to understand is that in a small community it is almost impossible to stay neutral. You have to take sides and, as in medieval times, when the leaders of your side fall out of favour, you are bound to fall with them.

THE UGLY DRAGON

by Molly Goddard

Chapter 3: Not everything is always as it seems

This time it was the dragon’s turn to look sad. Her scales seemed droopy, her tail flopped to the ground and she was barely showing her teeth at all.

Jimmy opened up the bag of flapjacks that he had with him and she cheered up a little.

‘Who’d have thought dragons would like flapjacks?’ he said, as they munched.

She didn’t reply.

‘There’s still something wrong, isn’t there?’ he asked. ‘You can talk to me, you know?’

She shivered her scales and said nothing.

‘You really cheered me up, last time we met. Talking helps.’

At last she began: ‘The thing is, Jimmy, I feel like a fraud. I hoped to grow up into a proper dragon, but it’s been hundreds of years now and I still haven’t got any wings, I can’t blow fire and I’m afraid of knights and swords.’

‘You’re still quite scary, though,’ he said. ‘All those teeth.’