‘Whatever is the girl doing?’ Miss Reedy said as she and the headmistress trotted down the driveway. They could see Caprice peering out from behind the hedge as clear as day.

‘Your guess is as good as mine, but she’d better have a very good reason for being in that flat.’ Ophelia frowned. ‘Caprice, come out here at once!’

The girl shrank down and froze.

‘Now!’ the headmistress boomed. She was in no mood to be toyed with.

‘Yes, Miss Grimm,’ Caprice replied, her voice wavering, as she emerged from behind the bush. Her face was smudged with black and her uniform was filthy.

‘Are you hurt?’ Miss Grimm asked.

Caprice remained tight-lipped and cast her eyes to the ground.

‘Perhaps we should go to your study and we can talk there,’ Livinia suggested quietly. ‘And if we need to, we can ask the paramedics to come down and make sure that she’s all right.’

‘That’s a very good idea,’ Ophelia said, nodding. The shadows were long and the sun was low in the sky. There was a slight chill in the air too. The headmistress placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder and steered her down the road. They walked directly to the back of Winchesterfield Manor and through Mrs Derby’s office to the headmistress’s study.

‘I’ll get us some tea,’ Miss Reedy said. ‘And a hot chocolate for you, Caprice.’

‘Thank you,’ Miss Grimm replied. ‘I think we could all do with a drink.’ She motioned for Caprice to sit on one of the dark green leather chesterfield lounges. Ophelia waited for Miss Reedy to return with the refreshments before pressing on. She wanted to have a witness to their discussions.

‘Here we are,’ Livinia said, setting the mugs onto the coffee table.

‘Now, Caprice,’ Miss Grimm began gently, ‘I hear that you let the horses out and alerted Mrs Howard to the fire. Well done for that, but I do need to know what you were doing in the flat in the first place.’

The girl gulped and glanced around the room.

‘The truth is all I’m interested in, Caprice. Millie and Alice-Miranda both saw you. They said you were pounding on the door to get out.’ Ophelia looked at the child. ‘I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you’re all right.’

Caprice blinked her big blue eyes. Tears welled and then spilled onto the tops of her cheeks. Miss Reedy jumped to grab a tissue and handed it to the girl.

‘I … I went for a walk to the stables after school and I heard a noise upstairs, so I had a look,’ Caprice began, then paused.

‘Go on,’ Miss Grimm urged. She wondered why Caprice went to the stables in the first place. She didn’t have a pony at school and hadn’t seemed even vaguely interested in horseriding since she’d arrived, despite having told the headmistress about her champion dressage horse in her interview.

‘Daddy said that he might buy me another pony, one I could bring to school because my Lipizzaner is far too valuable to have here,’ the girl explained, as if reading Ophelia’s mind, ‘so I went to see if there was a spare stall.’

‘What did you find upstairs?’

Caprice stared at her hands and began to pull apart the tissue she was holding. She swallowed hard. ‘There was someone up there.’

‘A member of staff?’ Miss Grimm pressed.

‘I don’t think so,’ she replied, her voice barely more than a whisper.

‘Oh, goodness,’ Livinia Reedy gasped. ‘Did they hurt you?’

Caprice shook her head.

‘Well, what were they doing?’ Ophelia Grimm asked, leaning towards the girl.

‘I don’t know,’ Caprice said. Then the words began to tumble out, as if someone had pulled an orange from the bottom of a shop display and now the whole lot was falling fast. ‘I heard a noise in the bedroom. I pushed the door open and saw someone go out through the window, then I turned to run downstairs and tell Charlie but I must have tripped over and hit my head. When I woke up there was smoke everywhere and I had to get out because I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to die.’

‘Oh, Caprice, you poor thing.’ Livinia Reedy went to comfort the child. She placed her arm around the girl’s shoulders and Caprice buried her head against the woman’s chest.

A row of lines formed across the headmistress’s forehead. ‘Did you see what the person looked like?’

Livinia Reedy sat back and allowed the girl to speak. Caprice sniffed and wiped away her tears. ‘No, I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.’

Ophelia Grimm stood up and walked to her desk. She picked up the telephone and buzzed her secretary. ‘Mrs Derby, could you get hold of your husband and Charlie and ask them to come to my office immediately?’ There was a long pause as Mrs Derby explained what had happened with the puppy. ‘That is good news. Thank you.’ The headmistress hung up and turned around. ‘Constable Derby and Charlie will be here in a few minutes,’ she said, sitting back down.

Caprice chewed on a nail. ‘But I don’t even know what the person looks like and I’m not hurt.’

The headmistress frowned. ‘No, you don’t appear to be but you must have hit your head if you blacked out. We’ll need to have the paramedics take a look at you and we must investigate the incident properly. We can’t have a stranger roaming about the campus. Did you see the puppy in the flat?’

Caprice shook her head sharply. ‘What puppy?’ she asked, wide-eyed.

‘Alice-Miranda and Millie found a puppy lying on the floor after they’d put the fire out,’ Ophelia explained. ‘It’s a wonder the creature didn’t die from smoke inhalation.’

‘Is he all right?’ Caprice asked.

‘Yes, Mrs Derby says he seems fine. It appears we’ll be looking after him until we find the owner or until Dr Davidson returns from his holiday – whichever comes first. Perhaps he belongs to the stranger you saw.’

‘Well, I’d say they’re dreadfully irresponsible,’ Miss Reedy sighed. ‘People like that shouldn’t be allowed to own pets.’

Caprice sat silently, staring at the door.

‘Livinia, could you ask the teachers and any support staff who are not currently on duty to meet in the teachers’ lounge in fifteen minutes?’ asked the headmistress.

There was a sharp knock on the door and Louella Derby poked her head around. ‘Hello Miss Grimm. Constable Derby and Charlie are here,’ she announced.

‘Please send them in,’ Ophelia said.

As the woman opened the door, a ball of caramel curls raced ahead of them.

‘Come back here, you naughty little thing,’ Louella called, but the creature was on a mission. He ran into the room, dodging the furniture and Miss Grimm’s legs, and stopped in front of Caprice. The girl flinched and tried to shoo him away but the pup would not be deterred. He jumped up onto the couch, then leapt up and licked the girl’s cheek.

‘Eww!’ Caprice squealed. But she couldn’t resist his charms and was soon cradling him against her chest.

‘He’s sure taken a shine to you,’ Mrs Derby said, reaching out to take the puppy. The girl reluctantly handed him over.

Miss Grimm welcomed the men. ‘Good evening, Constable Derby. Hello Charlie. Please take a seat. You need to hear what Caprice has just told us about what happened in the flat.’

Caprice sat up straight and flicked her copper-coloured locks over her shoulder.

‘How are you feeling, Charlie?’ Ophelia asked.

‘Fit as a fiddle, Miss Grimm, and thankfully Alice-Miranda and Millie are too. Talk about brave. I don’t know how many children would have had the wherewithal to locate the fire extinguisher and know how to use it. Seems like those lessons we gave them a while ago paid off,’ Charlie Weatherly said with a grin.

The woman nodded. ‘They certainly did.’

Constable Derby took out a notebook and pen from his top pocket. He looked at the girl, who was fidgeting with the cushion on the seat beside her. ‘All right, Caprice, let’s start from the beginning, shall we?’