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up at the blackening sky. ‘It’s going to pelt down any sec.’
    Nell gazed over the water. Like a curtain of smoke, the rain fell on the still, grey ocean. The wind carried the scent. A mixture of clean water above the salty ocean. Thewatery screen stretched as far as she could see north and south, and moved westward towards land, giving the air an eerie aspect.
    ‘Okay, if you don’t want to meet them, we can sneak in and see if we can hear them? We don’t have to let them know we’re even there.’ Sam tried to get her to move again.
    Before she could answer, the sky dumped its load and large raindrops stung any exposed skin. Within seconds, she and Sam were drenched.
    She braced for his temper, but he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.
    Finally, exhaling loudly, he stood up. ‘I’m going home.’ He bent towards his bike.
    Nell thought quickly. She didn’t want him to go. Something was happening and whatever that something was, it was happening to her. The changes that she was going through were more than the normal girl stuff. Her father was worried and so was Carl. In the space of a few hours, everything had changed. Did she have a disease? If there was something wrong, she wanted Sam with her when she found out. Maybe they could sneak in. Her father had probably taken the girls into the library.
    She jumped to her feet. ‘Wait.’
    Sam stopped, glared over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. The rain fell on him. His wet hair, plastered down the sides of his face, looked like an old-fashioned bonnet.
    A giggle escaped her throat. ‘Okay. Come in and I’ll get some towels.’
    She sensed Sam close behind her as she shook off her wet, sand-filled scuffs. She wiped her feet on the mat and signalled for him to do the same. When she opened the front door and stepped into the cool foyer, the library door was closed. ‘Wait here,’ she whispered. She ran up thestairs, grabbed two large towels from the bathroom and hurried back down again. She threw a towel to Sam.
    Once they’d dried themselves as much as they could, Nell hung the towels over the stair’s banister and faced the door that led to the library. Her father and the girls were probably talking about her. She shrugged, elbowed Sam and indicated that they should listen by cupping her ear with her hand.
    He beamed and nodded. They tiptoed to the door and pressed their ears against the wood. Muffled voices. Nell’s shoulders slumped. There was no way she would be able to hear their conversation. Unless …
    Sam shook his head and stepped back from the door.
    She examined her friend, trying to make up her mind. She didn’t want to let him in on her secret. It was nice knowing she knew something nobody else knew. She corrected herself. Annet knew. Sam’s mother had caught her sneaking into the kitchen from the passage last July when Nell was supposed to be studying. She sighed, grabbed Sam’s arm and dragged him after her. An odd exhilaration passed through her as the atmosphere again tingled her skin.
    ‘Where’re we going?’ Sam didn’t fight as she pulled him along.
    ‘Just follow me.’
    In the kitchen, she shoved him under the large wooden table against the wall on the right. When she crouched down, he looked at her as though she was mad.
    She smiled and pushed a cracked piece of skirting board down. A square panel, the size of a large dog door, flew open from the wall. His expression was blank.
    ‘It’s a secret passageway,’ she said quietly. ‘I found it years ago when I was hiding from your mother.’ His eyeswidened and she sensed his hesitation. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve been through it heaps of times. It goes to the library, and don’t ask me how it got here because I don’t know.’
    ‘I’m not worried,’ he said, looking insulted. ‘One thing I do like when going out with Dad are the caves. You’d probably be scared to death there. Bats and all sorts of creepy-crawlies.’
    Nell snorted and crawled through