Megan showed Freya all the new things, laying them out on the rug. Freya loved the poster of the white horse. They stuck it to the wall and turned the box upside down to use as a table. Megan put the book, the colouring book and the pens on top of it. Then they measured the treehouse in steps. It was six steps long and five steps across – exactly as Megan had thought. The girls snuggled under the blanket, even though it was warm, and took out the biscuits. Then Freya spotted the bits of wool and the round tin of beads.

‘What are these for?’ she asked.

‘Well . . . um . . . I want to make you a friendship bracelet,’ Megan said, nervously.

‘Oh, Megan!’ said Freya, giving her new friend a big hug. ‘Can I make you one too?’

Megan nodded, smiling from ear to ear. She really was glad they’d moved to Buttercup House, even though she did still miss Emily and Beth. They would love it here, thought Megan, and she promised herself she would write to them soon.

The girls chose their favourite colours. Freya chose green and purple, and Megan chose yellow and blue. They plaited the wool into bracelets, adding on the brightly coloured beads.

‘Can you believe we saw Buttercup again?’ said Freya.

Megan munched into her biscuit. ‘I know. He must live somewhere near here,’ said Megan. ‘I wonder how many times your granny saw him, when he used to come.’

‘She can tell you if you like,’ said Freya. ‘Shall we go and ask her?’

‘Ooh, yes,’ said Megan.

So the girls left their new things in the treehouse and went in search of Granny.

‘Granny,’ said Freya, bursting into the living room. Granny sat with her legs curled up on the chair, her head buried in a book. ‘Can we talk to you?’ Freya whispered.

‘I thought you might want to,’ Granny said, jumping up from her chair. ‘A walk around the garden, I think.’

When they were halfway down the garden, Freya whispered, ‘Granny, we’ve seen Buttercup again.’

‘I knew it,’ Granny said. ‘I knew the minute I saw all those buttercups that he’d been here. How exciting!’

‘Shall we show you where we saw him, Granny?’ asked Freya.

‘Ooh, yes please,’ said Granny.

So Megan and Freya took Granny to the spot near the stream.

‘He was over there,’ Freya told her granny. ‘At the edge of the wood, wasn’t he, Meggy?’

Megan nodded. But when she looked at the trees now there was no sign of Buttercup, and she wondered if he really had been there, or if it had just been the golden sunlight shining through the branches of the trees.

The three of them stood, watching.

‘Granny, can you tell Megan about when Buttercup came before?’ asked Freya, suddenly remembering the reason for wanting to talk to her.

‘Well, there’s rather a lot to tell,’ Granny said, leading the girls to the bench and sitting down with one either side of her. ‘This is becoming a good place for storytelling, isn’t it?’ She laughed, reaching an arm around each of the girls.

Then Granny told her story.

‘The first time Buttercup came was to help my brother, Jonathon,’ said Granny.

‘Is that the same brother who tried to climb the tree?’ asked Megan, remembering the story Freya had told her.

‘Yes,’ said Granny. ‘Only this time, he’d gone to the stream to look for newts and decided to explore. He went towards the woods and managed to fall into a ditch. He wasn’t badly hurt but on his way down, he managed to twist his knee. He couldn’t get out. Then it started to get dark, so my father went to look for him. But he couldn’t find him so he ran to the local police station and there was a big search for him. They were out with torches looking, but they couldn’t find him anywhere.’

‘Didn’t he call for help?’ asked Megan.

‘He said he did,’ said Granny. ‘Everyone must have been looking elsewhere when he called because they just didn’t hear him.’

‘What happened?’ said Megan, starting to feel worried.

‘That’s when Dorothy and Buttercup came to help,’ said Granny.

She then explained how her parents had left her at home, in the care of a nanny, while they searched for Jonathon.

‘I couldn’t sleep,’ said Granny. ‘So I sneaked out of bed and went downstairs, and there was Dorothy.’

‘What did she do?’ asked Megan.

‘She stood right next to me and looked at me. I just knew that she wanted me to go with her, so I followed her into the garden, across the stream and into our field beyond,’ said Granny. ‘That’s when I saw Buttercup. He was waiting on the other side of the stream. He came right up to me and looked at me in exactly the same way Dorothy did. I knew that he had found Jonathon and wanted me to go with him.’

The girls were open-mouthed now, unable to speak. Even Freya, who had heard this story before, felt as if she’d been struck dumb.

‘What happened then?’ asked Megan.

‘Well, Buttercup led me to Jonathon, then I went to fetch help. If it hadn’t been for Dorothy and Buttercup, I don’t know how long Jonathon would have been stuck there,’ said Granny.

‘What happened to Buttercup?’ asked Megan.

‘He sat with Jonathon for a while, but by the time we all went to help him, Buttercup had gone. Jonathon was convinced he’d dreamed the whole thing.’

‘But what did you tell the nanny?’ asked Megan.

‘I said I’d heard Jonathon shouting for help,’ Granny laughed. ‘If I’d told her he’d been helped by a big golden dog that then disappeared, do you think she’d have believed me?’

The girls shook their heads.

‘As I always say,’ said Granny, ‘some things need to be kept in the box.’

The girls nodded. They understood how silly the story would have sounded to a grown-up!

‘Jonathon wasn’t quite so adventurous after that,’ said Granny. ‘I saw Buttercup a few more times, but it was so long ago that I’ve sometimes wondered if I imagined the whole thing.’

‘Oh, please tell Megan about the other times,’ said Freya.

‘Another day,’ said Granny, keeping her voice to a whisper. ‘But I will just tell you this. Buttercup helped me a couple of times, and I could always tell what he was thinking.’

‘Really?’ Megan said.

Granny nodded. ‘Maybe, now you’re here, Megan, he’ll let you know what he’s thinking too.’

Megan really hoped so, and crossed her fingers very tightly.