Flora peered out of her bedroom window. On the lawn below, shaded by the huge oak tree, Heather and Jess sat, sketchpads on their laps, their pencils flying across the pages. They were always drawing, those two. Their artwork had turned darker this summer: Gothic headstones and gargoyles, their faces distorted and ugly. They were obviously going through a phase, as her mum would say. They had Heather’s portable tape player between them on the lawn, and she could hear the faint, tinny strains of ‘Lovesong’ by the Cure. She knew that her sister was keeping guard, stopping her sneaking out to meet Dylan. She tried to pretend otherwise, of course, but Flora wasn’t stupid. Every time she ventured outside, Heather and Jess were there, like her own personal bodyguards, with their insincere greetings and pretence of asking her to help them with the horses, or to clean one of the caravans or any of the other mind-numbingly boring excuses they kept coming up with. She felt like a prisoner in her own home. And it was always there, unspoken between them: Heather’s veiled threat to tell their mum. So Flora found herself humouring Heather and playing along. She should never have smoked that joint – Heather was even more disapproving of Dylan now.

But it had been two days and Flora felt she was going to die of a broken heart if she didn’t see him soon. He might think she was going off him. He might meet someone else. She couldn’t bear it any longer: she had to see him.

She watched as Heather jumped to her feet, throwing her arms wide and spinning around, singing loudly while Jess looked on, giggling. Heather was wearing a lemon yellow sundress and looked beautiful and innocent as she twirled on the lawn. Flora felt an unexpected pang of tenderness towards her. She knew her sister was only looking out for her. But, still, it could be stifling. She was the eldest: she didn’t need her baby sister to protect her.

She pushed away the thought. This was her chance, while they were distracted. There was no point making excuses that she was going to the shops as they would just offer to go with her. No, she had to be sneaky.