SILK WICKEDNESS 14

‘It’s not so horrible.’ He picked the scuttling thing up. ‘And it’s not a cockroach either. Look.’

Holding back her fluttering fringe, she took a wary step forwards. ‘It’s just a shell!’

‘Wait.’ She could hear the amusement in his voice. He came closer, stood right beside her, The Thing on his outstretched palm.

For about twenty seconds the shell stayed still. And then it tilted a little and some little legs poked hesitantly out. ‘It’s just a hermit crab,* he said. ‘Just going about its crabby little business.’

Her frown vanished. She watched as it crept hesitantly across his palm and stopped again. ‘I do apologize for insulting you,’ she told it, ‘but you really did feel like a cockroach.*

He put it back on the sand. When he straightened up there was more than a half-smile on his face. It was more like three-quarters.

‘Go on, then,’ she said half defensively. ‘Have a good laugh.’

Paradoxically, his smile faded. ‘I wasn’t laughing at you.’

As he gazed down at her, her heart and stomac