Oh God, those are his feet thundering down the stairs. Stella wraps her jacket tight across her chest and runs to meet the car. At least Diana’s on the same wavelength—you can tell by the way she accelerates too fast round the corner and brakes too hard in front of the house. The passenger door springs open at the same time as Cory bursts onto the porch, and Stella is barely inside before the tyres are spitting gravel and they’re off. Cory’s bellow hardly even registers—she’s too busy righting herself, reaching to close the door, and working out what those tall, pale stripes are that keep flashing past the windscreen. Tree trunks? Are they into the woods already? Out of habit she fumbles for a seat belt—but she can’t find it, and she can’t care.

The car tosses her from side to side as it weaves down the drive. Stella kneels up on her seat and looks back, but the house is already out of sight. All she can see are the tree trunks flitting along the edge of the road, lit red against the deeper darkness of the woods.

Stella laughs out loud and hugs the back of her seat. Diana hasn’t spoken yet. Her sharp face is green in the light of the dashboard, and her hands are tight on the steering wheel. Perhaps she is afraid of going home again and having to face Cory? Stella will think of something kind to say about that, just as soon as she can keep a straight face.

One minute she’s whooping, the next she’s feeling sick and struggling to open the window. They’ve left the drive behind and the road is climbing, but Stella has no idea where they are. At one point she thinks she sees the lights in Bligh harbour, but she’s not certain.

“That window doesn’t work,” says Diana. “I ought to get it fixed.”

Stella makes a little moan and Diana slows the car right down. A couple of minutes later they pull into a lay-by. Stella flings the door open and gulps the cold, wet air.

It’s wilder up here, unprotected by the trees, and the car judders in the wind. Stella closes her eyes. There’s a subterranean rumble that makes her think of underground trains, but there can’t be any underground trains because they’re not in London yet.

“It’s the sound of the sea at the foot of the cliffs,” Diana explains, although Stella hasn’t asked. She goes on: “That’s where Cory’s father died—just down there.”

Stella’s head is flung back against the seat, but she does her best to nod. She ought to say something appropriate, but the schnapps is churning and her breathing is getting shallower; she lurches out of her seat just in time to throw up on the verge.