Something’s seriously up with Nell this morning. She’s storming about the place before it’s even light. I pull the covers over my head but when I hear her talking on the phone I immediately think it’s to Mum. Quickly putting on jeans and a jumper, I go downstairs. Nell’s in the hallway, phone tucked under her chin.

‘Yes, every single blasted one,’ she’s saying. ‘Right back in their original places. Can you believe it, Mr Giles, they’ve even nailed the posts back together!’

Nell notices me hovering. She gestures towards the kitchen like there’s something she wants me to see. I don’t know what she’s on about: everything looks normal in here. The table’s covered in papers and coffee cups. And Borage, the great lazy lump, is still in his bed by the Aga.

‘What’s going on, boy?’ I say, crouching down to rub his ears.

He thumps his tail. Not much, by the looks of it. Taking the kettle to the sink to fill it, I gaze blearily out of the window. Today I need to find Flo. There must be something we can do to save the woods – something that doesn’t involve fairies.

‘Seen it, have you?’ says Nell, coming into the kitchen.

‘Huh?’

She joins me at the window. ‘That fence I took down yesterday – d’you see where it is now?’

Wiping off the condensation, I peer through the glass. I’m still not sure what she’s on about. The fence that separates the garden from the wood looks like it always does – wooden posts, wooden rails.

Except … hang on … yesterday Nell took the fence down. I watched from the window and saw the posts she’d dug up lying in a big heap. It took her ages. Now they’re all back in the ground.

‘Who did it?’ I ask.

‘I’ve no idea,’ says Nell. ‘Someone’s playing tricks on me.’

My heart starts to thump.

Flo said this would happen, didn’t she? She said there’d be more hold-ups, more delays. And someone or something has messed with Nell’s fence, all right. It’ll take her ages to dig those posts up again.

I feel a chill creeping over me. Flo called them tricks. She said they were a warning to Nell not to cut down Darkling Wood. If she ignores them and goes ahead, the fairies will take revenge, and I’ve a nasty suspicion who their target will be.

Us.

‘I’m not still grounded, am I?’ I say to Nell.

‘What?’ Nell looks surprised. Her mind’s clearly on other things. ‘No.’

Grabbing my coat, I race out of the door. I need to find Flo. Fast.

I head straight to the woods. The birds are quiet, as if they know something’s wrong. Even the trees look grim. It’s hard not to think of what they’ll look like next week, hacked to pieces on the ground. There’s no sign of Flo in the usual places, not even a footprint. I just hope she’s not still cross with me over last time, and that business with the note I found in the tree.

At the edge of the wood, I turn left towards Glossop’s Farm, where the Travellers are camped. If Flo won’t come to me, I’ll have to go to her. It’s a steep climb up the hill. At the very top the ground falls away towards a line of trees. Stopping to catch my breath, I see the crooked chimney of a house, a rooftop with tiles missing and rows of smashed-in windows. So this is Glossop’s Farm. Someone must’ve lived here once; now, though, it’s bleak and empty. Perhaps the building wasn’t safe to live in. Perhaps there were problems with tree roots here too.

A dog barks nearby. The sound’s coming from some parked-up vehicles just beyond the farmhouse. There’s an old horsebox done out for living in, buses, brightly coloured trucks, a couple of caravans. If this is the Travellers’ camp, then Flo must be down there too.

I get as far as the line of trees before something knocks me flying. I fall hard on my bum. Next thing, I’m pinned to the ground by a massive black dog.

‘Off, Raven!’ someone shouts. ‘Get off!’

A hand grabs the animal and yanks it away. Shakily, I sit up. Two feet wrapped in carrier bags appear next to me.

‘You all right, chick?’ says a woman.

I try out my legs and arms. I don’t seem to be bleeding.

‘I think so,’ I say.

‘Can you stand up?’ says the woman.

She’s got a bit of rope round the dog now. He’s big and squat with a massive head. And he’s still a bit too interested in me.

‘Keep the dog back,’ I say.

I’m not scared of dogs but this monster makes me very nervous. No wonder Flo doesn’t like them. Slowly, I get up.

‘What you wanting here, anyway?’ says the woman, now she sees I’m not bleeding to death.

‘I’m looking for a girl,’ I say.

‘Oh aye. A school friend, are you? What’s your name?’

‘Alice,’ I say.

‘You’re the new student, aren’t you?’ the woman says, folding her arms. ‘Aye, she’s mentioned you.’

‘Has she?’ I try to be polite but all the time I’m glancing over her shoulder. ‘Could you tell Flo that I’m here, please? I really need to see her.’

‘Flo?’

The woman hasn’t moved. She’s not exactly friendly, not like my mum, who insists on hugging all my friends. And I’m getting the sense now that maybe she doesn’t know who I’m talking about.

‘Yes, Flo – short for Florence. Nell … I mean my grandmother … said Flo lived here at the Travellers’ camp.’

The woman catches this name too. ‘Nell? Nell Campbell? That crazy old bint who owns Darkling Wood?’

I shuffle my feet. It’s like being at the village shop again.

‘Yes,’ I say. ‘And that’s why I need to see Flo.’

The woman’s face drops. ‘Your grandma hasn’t got the go-ahead to cut the wood down, has she? The council haven’t said yes?’

‘They don’t need to, apparently. The work starts on Tuesday.’

‘Flaming heck! It’s criminal, that is, to cut down such an old bit of woodland! Those trees should be protected!’ the woman cries. ‘I can’t believe no one’s put a stop to it!’

According to Flo, the fairies are trying. Though I don’t say this.

‘So is she around?’ I ask again. ‘Nell said …’

‘Then your grandma’s got her facts wrong, hasn’t she?’ The woman’s voice has an edge to it now. ‘You won’t find any Flo here in our camp.’

The dog starts growling again. The woman steps nearer.

‘Look,’ I say, trying to sound braver than I feel. ‘I don’t want the wood cut down either.’

Then someone shouts, ‘Mum! Stop being so embarrassing!’

The woman spins round. Two people step down from the horsebox and come towards us – a man, and a girl wearing the brightest striped tights I’ve ever seen. She looks like … no, wait … she is Ella from school. I’m completely thrown.

‘Oh.’ Ella stops when she sees me. ‘It’s you.’

‘Who’s this then, love?’ says the man, who I suppose is her dad.

‘Someone from school,’ says Ella.

I think of those posters she put up last week and feel my insides shrink.

‘Aha! Nice to meet you.’ Her dad sticks out a grubby hand.

Awkwardly, I shake it.

‘Here, Del,’ says the woman who must be Ella’s mum. ‘You know you’ve just shaken hands with Nell Campbell’s granddaughter, don’t you?’

The man looks at me, then at his hand, which he wipes on the back of his jeans.

‘You tell your grandmother we’re going to fight her,’ he says, not so friendly now. ‘Whenever she starts destroying that wood, we’ll be there. You tell her.’

‘It’s starting Tuesday,’ says the woman.

‘This Tuesday? In two days’ time? Hell’s bells!’

‘I don’t want it to happen either,’ I say. ‘I’m just trying to find my friend Flo so we can do something about it.’

The three of them look at me, stony-faced. It’s no good. They don’t believe me.

‘You’d better go,’ the woman says. ‘Your grandmother will be wondering where you are.’

I feel their eyes on me all the way back up the hill. What bothers me more, though, is that I still haven’t found Flo.