When I wake up the next morning, something’s different; at first I can’t work out what. It’s not the dinner we ate together like a family, or Dad staying the night on Nell’s sofa, though all that’s different enough.

As I sit up and rub my eyes, I see what’s changed. The whole room looks brighter. There’s even a little line of sunshine coming in under the curtains. I get dressed quickly and head downstairs. In the hallway, there’s a big patch of sunlight on the floor where I’ve never seen it before. And Nell’s being unusually polite to someone on the phone.

‘Pollarding? So that should slow their growth down, yes? Good. Excellent, Mr Giles,’ she says.

Through the open sitting-room door, I see Dad’s feet sticking out from under a blanket.

I hover in the doorway. ‘What’s pollarding, Dad?’

‘Huh? Pollarding?’ He sits up, bleary-eyed. ‘It’s a bit like pruning. You cut something back to stop it growing so fast.’

‘A trim, then.’ Though I expect this sounds too much like hairdressing for Nell. Turning to her, I wave to get her attention.

‘Ask how Max is!’ I hiss. ‘Can I speak to him?’ But she’s still in full flow on the phone.

‘What you cut yesterday has already improved the light situation here. It’s really rather remarkable. The whole house feels different.’

Eventually, she asks, ‘Your son – has he recovered from yesterday’s mishap?’

There’s a long, nerve-racking wait as Nell ums and ahs to Mr Giles’s reply.

‘Well, well,’ she says, finally. ‘It’s as if some malign force was against us all along.’

She’s nearer the truth than she realises, but Nell being Nell simply laughs it off. Then, ignoring my outstretched hands, she puts the phone down.

‘Was Max too ill to speak?’ I ask, feeling awful.

‘On the contrary, my dear, he’s on his way to school,’ says Nell.

‘Hang on, so it wasn’t a bad accident, then?’

‘It wasn’t an accident at all. Max made it up.’

‘What? Why?’

‘According to his father, Max did it for you,’ Nell says, raising her eyebrows at me. Which makes me blush. Mostly, though, I’m pretty chuffed.

The rest doesn’t take much working out. Once I told him about the fairies, Max knew we had to save the woods. So he lied, knowing how his father would stop work at once and rush home.

‘I owe Max a thank you,’ I say, though maybe even that was the fairies’ work and I should be thanking them too.

*

Halfway through breakfast, the phone rings.

‘I’ll get it,’ I say, thinking it might be Mum.

When I pick up the phone no one speaks. I hear a person breathing.

‘Very funny, weirdo.’

‘I’m not a weirdo,’ says a voice.

I almost drop the phone.

‘Theo?’

‘Alice?’

My throat goes thick. I do a quick fan of my face to keep back the tears. ‘You little monkey! I’m calling your doctor immediately! DOCTOR!’

Theo laughs. It’s a proper giggle that makes me sunshine-happy. I hear Mum in the background telling him not to get too excited. But we carry on until she takes the phone off him.

‘Hi Alice,’ she says. ‘Lexie’s mum’s had her baby at last and they’re out of hospital. Jen’s coming with Lexie to pick you up today.’

I stop smiling. ‘What?’

‘They’ll get to you about lunchtime – well, that’s what she said, so let’s hope her timekeeping’s better than Kate’s. The main thing is you don’t have to go with Dad or stay on with Nell, okay?’

I twirl the telephone cord round my finger. I don’t actually know if it is okay.

‘I’m all right here,’ I say.

Mum sighs. ‘I thought you’d be happy, Alice.’

Now the tears start tumbling down my face.

‘I am happy,’ I say. ‘I really am.’

*

I don’t go to school today, which I’m not exactly sad about; I can’t say I’ll miss Ferndean High. But I am sad not to say goodbye to Ella or Max, so I make sure I ask Nell for Mr Giles’s phone number.

Then there’s Flo. I’m halfway out the back door when Nell stops me.

‘Pack first,’ she says. ‘And clean your room.’

I glare at her. She can’t be serious, not when I’ve got so much to tell Flo.

Dad looks up from his bacon sandwich. ‘Just do it, love.’

So I stomp back upstairs, but it’s funny, really. No one’s ever had to tell me to tidy my room. And now that they have, I’m a tiny bit pleased.

It takes all of two minutes to stuff clothes in a bag and straighten the covers on my bed. I take the letters out of the carrier and return them to their box. I’m careful to put them back as I found them, in date order, tied with green ribbon. Once I’ve finished, they look untouched. Just as they’ve always been.

Yet something has very definitely changed.

Me, for starters.

Once Borage sees bags in the hallway, he won’t leave my side. He insists on coming with me to the woods.

‘No frightening Flo, d’you hear?’ I say as we go down the path. He twitches his ears to show he’s heard.

But I think of a million reasons why she won’t be here: school, illness, Travellers moving on – if she’s a Traveller at all. I’m so deep in thought I’m not watching where I’m going. I walk straight into something very hard.

‘Ahhh!’ I clutch my forehead. ‘What the …?’

‘You should look where you’re going,’ laughs Flo.

Squinting upwards, I see the boots I’ve just walked into. My head throbs like mad and already there’s a lump beneath my fingers. But that doesn’t stop the big happy whoop in my chest.

‘You’re here!’

‘Where else would I be?’

Which makes perfect sense, coming from her.

‘You won’t believe it, but my grandmother’s changed her mind! She’s not cutting down the wood after all! Isn’t it brilliant?’

There’s a silence. I wish I could see Flo’s face.

‘It’s more than brilliant, Alice,’ she says finally. ‘You did it. You believed in magic.’

‘I believed in bad magic as well as the good stuff,’ I say, thinking of Theo on the phone this morning and how different things might’ve been. ‘But now I’m going home today, so I’d rather not say goodbye to a pair of boots.’

Flo drops down beside me with a thud and I burst out laughing.

‘Ow! That hurt!’ she says, shaking out her feet. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘You did that the first time I met you – well, the first proper time,’ I say.

As she pushes her hair off her face, I see her nose has gone pink.

‘Are you crying?’

‘No.’ But as she dabs her eyes in her coat sleeve it’s obvious she is.

‘I’ll think of you each time I climb a tree, and whenever I see …’

‘You won’t,’ she cuts in.

‘Oh?’

‘You saw fairies when you needed to. And that’s more than most people ever do.’

Now it’s my turn to fill up. I’m so sad I ache. But it’s sad in a good way because something amazing happened, even if it never does again.

‘In that case, I’m glad I saw fairies with you, Flo.’

‘Oh, Alice, I’m glad too.’

Borage, who’s been sniffing around the trees, picks this moment to lollop over. He looks like a giant wolf. Flo breathes in sharply.

‘Send him away!’ she gasps.

Borage stops, ears down, eyes mournful.

‘He’s all right. Look at him – he’s a softie.’

As if to prove it, Borage lies down and rolls over. Flo stares at him, eyes on stalks.

Then, after a bit, she says, ‘I … I think … maybe … he wants a tummy rub?’

‘He always wants a tummy rub,’ I say.

At first, it’s just me doing the stroking. But eventually Flo kneels beside me. She touches his front paw. Then his upside-down head. The tip of his tail thumps against the ground. We sit down with Borage stretched out blissfully between us. And we stay like it for ages, until I hear a car.

It’s Jen and Lexie. They’re early.

Grinning, I scramble to my feet.

‘Come and meet Lexie!’ I say to Flo.

I go on ahead, back to the house. The garden is full of voices I know well, yet it’s strange to hear them here at Darkling Cottage. As soon as I’m through the gate I see Lexie talking to Dad. I’ve forgotten how much I’ve missed her.

Once we’ve hugged and squealed, Lexie takes out her phone and shows me a photo.

‘Alice,’ says Lexie, ‘meet Baby.’

The baby gazes out at us with eyes so blue they look black.

‘Adorable,’ I say. ‘But Baby?’

‘We can’t agree on a name,’ Jen calls over. ‘Got any suggestions, Alice? We’re well and truly stuck.’

I look at Lexie, blowing kisses to the picture, and smile.

‘Brother or sister?’ I ask.

‘A little sister,’ Lexie says, not taking her eyes off her phone.

I don’t know why but I’m glad.

The gate clicks open and there’s Flo. I think she’s been hanging back, waiting for us to stop squealing. As she crosses the lawn towards us now, her long coat trails in the grass.

I touch Lexie’s arm. ‘There’s someone I’d like you to say hi to.’

She looks up. Flo stops a few feet away. She’s so small next to Lexie. So thin.

‘Flo, this is my very good friend Lexie from home,’ I say. ‘Lexie, this is my very good friend Flo from … the woods.’

I wait for them to smile and say hello or something. But Flo puts her hands in her pockets and Lexie frowns.

‘What’s the matter?’ I ask.

‘Who are you talking to, Alice?’ Lexie says.

‘Flo. I told you.’

‘But it’s just us. Everyone else has gone inside.’

I don’t know what she’s on about. Flo’s right in front of me. So close I can almost touch her hand.

Lexie’s mouth falls open. ‘Blimey, Alice, no wonder you’re seeing stuff. You’ve got a massive bump on your head.’

She’s right; it feels the size of a golf ball.

‘I’m fine,’ I say.

‘I’m fine,’ laughs Lexie. ‘You ALWAYS say that. Sometimes it’s okay to be not fine too, you know.’

Within moments Nell, Dad, Jen and Borage are all crowding round me. Over their shoulders I watch as Flo slips away between the trees.