Lew shouted at them a lot, but he had never put his hands on them. No, Laurie suddenly remembered, that wasn’t quite true. One time when Brian had walked into his study without knocking, Lew had given him a spanking. A hard one. Brian had tried not to cry, but in the end he had. And Mom had cried, too, although she hadn’t tried to stop the spanking. But she must have said something to him later on, because Laurie had heard Lew shouting at her. Still, it had been a spanking, not child abuse, and Brian could be an insufferable cheese-dog when he put his mind to it.

Had he been putting his mind to it that night? Laurie wondered now. Or had Lew spanked her brother and made him cry over something, which had only been an honest, little kid’s mistake? She didn’t know, and had a sudden and unwelcome insight, the sort of thought that made her think Peter Pan had had the right idea about never wanting to grow up: she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. One thing she did know: who the real cheese-dog around here was. She realized Trent hadn’t answered her question, and gave him a poke. ‘Cat got your tongue?’

‘Just thinking,’ he said. ‘It’s a toughie, you know?’

‘Yes,’ she said soberly. ‘I know.’

This time she let him think.

‘Nah,’ he said at last, and laced his hands together behind his head. ‘I don’t think so, Sprat.’ She hated to be called that, but tonight she decided to let it go. She couldn’t remember Trent ever speaking to her this carefully and seriously. ‘I don’t think he would… but I think he could.’ He got up on one elbow and looked at her even more seriously. ‘But I think he’s hurting Mom, and I think it gets a little worse for her every day.’ ’She’s sorry, isn’t she?’ Laurie asked. Suddenly she felt like crying. Why were adults so stupid sometimes about stuff kids could see right away? It made you want to kick them. ‘She never wanted to go to England in the first place… and there’s the way he shouts at her sometimes…’