Henry quickly rushed to the connecting door and opened it a crack. The man was big and muscular but quite young too, maybe early twenties. He was wearing a t-shirt and both arms were covered in tattoos. The man looked around the kitchen, spotted Penny’s rucksack and loaded it with her purse and her mobile phone. He spotted a camera and threw that into the bag too. Then he opened the fridge and helped himself to a handful of chocolate bars, which joined the other stuff in the bag. He zipped up the bag and moved back towards the door.

Henry slammed the connecting door open, making the man jump out of his skin.

‘Going somewhere with all that stuff?’ Henry asked.

The man stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. He pointed vaguely to the open door, made some kind of squeak of pure fear and then bolted out the door, taking the bag with him.

Henry was hot on his heels. The guy was fast, but Henry was faster and, as the man sprinted round the corner of the house, Henry threw himself at his legs, bringing him face down onto the gravel driveway. The man let out a wail of pain as Henry used all his weight to keep him pinned to the floor.

‘Henry, what the hell are you doing?’ Penny said, running towards them from the front of the house.

‘I caught this thieving little shit stealing your purse, phone and camera. Call the police.’

‘Henry, this is Josh, a friend of mine. He helps me to take my carvings to events. I told him to grab my bag. And you just threw him down on the floor.’

‘He’s a friend of yours?’

‘Yes. He works for me.’

Henry processed this and quickly scrabbled off Josh, and then pulled him to his feet, brushing the dirt and stones off him.

‘Sorry about that, mate, I just saw you come into Penny’s house and take her stuff, and I thought… Sorry, you’re not hurt I hope? Why on earth did you run? You could have just told me you were a friend of Penny’s.’

Josh still looked absolutely terrified of him, obviously wondering if he was going to get a pummelling at any second.

‘Because you probably scared him, have you seen the size of yourself? You scare me too.’

Henry blinked at this new revelation. ‘You’re scared of me?’

‘Oh, there’s a million things that scare me about you. Josh, get in the van, we need to go.’

Penny handed her bag back to Josh and walked back round the side of the house towards her kitchen. Josh didn’t move for a moment but Henry ran round the house after Penny, catching her arm just as she was about to open his back door.

‘Why are you scared of me? I would never do anything to hurt you.’

Her face softened slightly and she ran her hand over his stubble. Her touch was like fire on his skin and he instinctively moved his hands to her waist.

‘I’m not scared of you physically hurting me, though I suspect the end result will be the same.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Why did you kiss me last night?’

‘You know why.’

‘But you told me you’re not looking for anything serious, and I get that, I totally do. Daisy is your number one priority and I never want to get in the way of that, but we agreed we would just stay as friends. I know I kissed you, I know it’s my fault. I really like you and I suspect that the discrepancies in what we want will be the thing that hurts the most.’ She sighed. ‘I have to go.’

She opened his back door and stuck her head inside. ‘Daisy, we need to leave now, are you ready?’

He heard the thunder of feet as his daughter came down the stairs and he quickly dropped his hands from Penny’s waist.

Penny looked at him pointedly as she stepped away.

Daisy ran outside, stepping between them as she shoved her feet into her Converse and dragged a coat on. He was surprised to see she had done her hair in curls and even put some make-up on.

‘I’d like her back by ten,’ Henry said, trying to distract himself from what Penny had just said.

‘Dad!’

‘Half ten then.’

Penny nodded. ‘We shouldn’t be too late.’

He watched Daisy link arms with Penny and they disappeared round the side of the house.

He went back inside, a little bit annoyed that his daughter was allowed to go out with Penny but he wasn’t.

After setting up Penny’s competition piece on the stand, Josh went back for Daisy’s piece while Penny went to pay and register for her and Daisy. She hadn’t even looked at the other competitors’ pieces yet as they were so late getting there.

She moved back into the village hall and found Daisy pressed against the back wall, seemingly too nervous to mingle or look around. The room was dark, lit up only by the spotlights arranged underneath the sculptures, making them look ethereal and magical in silvery puddles of light. Penny watched Josh carry the small snowflake across the room as if he was carrying a newborn baby and unwrap it with the same care.

‘Everyone will laugh at my snowflake when they see it, I shouldn’t have entered.’

‘Of course you should. You have a real talent. In all honesty I don’t think either of us will win tonight. I’ve just seen the list of competitors and there’re at least three other entrants who always enter something that is truly magnificent. Fabio is from Italy and apparently he has won some big international championship in America this year so I don’t think we can compete with that, but it’s fantastic to see other people’s work and skills.’

‘I just don’t want to come last, that would be so embarrassing.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with coming last. But as it happens these competitions choose first, second and third place so there is no last. If you don’t come in the top three you can say you came joint fourth.’

Daisy grinned up at her.

‘I’ve come joint fourth on many occasions.’

‘Have you ever won?’

‘Once, last year, which is why the big competition is being hosted in White Cliff Bay this year, at the ball – the winner’s town hosts it. I’ve come second once and third a few times, but, as I said, some of these guys pull out all the stops. One year Octavia had a tiny village with moving people, cars and lights that went on and off, all made from ice, with some kind of radio-controlled pieces inside. The Ice Carving Federation had to create a ruling that only ice was allowed in competitions from now on because people were going crazy with flashing lights and other things they had frozen inside the ice. Those sorts of things are great at a party or a wedding but when you do a carving competition they take away from the focus of the carving skills, which is the thing that is supposed to be judged.’

Penny watched Josh walk over to them. Normally Josh would help her set up at the competition and then leave, he very rarely stayed. But he and Daisy had chatted quite a bit on the journey, first to the party to drop off the sleigh and then on the way here. He very rarely spoke at all so it was quite a revelation to hear him so vocal. He rubbed his wrist again and Penny wondered if he had hurt himself when Henry had threw him to the ground.

‘Shall we have a look around at the other sculptures? Watch out for the other carvers, they’re a slightly weird bunch. Just stay out of their way and it’s probably best to not talk to any of them unless I say it’s OK. It gets highly competitive.’

‘Is that why the police are here?’ Daisy joked.

Penny winced. ‘Yeah, last time there was a punch-up between Geoffrey and Fabio and that wasn’t the first time something happened between the two of them. One year Geoffrey got drunk and pissed all over Fabio’s sculpture, which caused it to melt.’

‘Ewww, that’s disgusting.’

‘I know, he’s probably the weirdest of them all. He was banned for two years after that. But he came back last year and before the competition had even started there was a punch-up between them.’

They moved off to look at the first sculpture, a wonderful mermaid that was bursting from the waves. It was very well done though some of the un-textured surfaces were not as smooth as they could be, suggesting that the carver was new to the craft. It was beautiful though. Penny looked at the name of the competitor to see it was created by a girl called Melody. It wasn’t a name she recognised from previous competitions and she smiled that someone new had joined their crazy little group. Penny looked around for her but there was no one standing nearby. Penny made a note to come and say hello to her later.