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polite queue of sisters and demanded to see the manager.
    ‘My family’s just been left five thousand pounds,’ said Naomi, and after a little astonished investigation the manager was able to confirm this.
    ‘It got paid into the family account here,’ continued Naomi, laying great stress on the word ‘family’.
    ‘I have come for my eight hundred and thirty pounds,’ said Naomi, smiling ingratiatingly at him.
    It did not work.

    ‘Haven’t you thought of anything yet?’ demanded Rachel in a hoarse whisper as the taxi carried them to the station.
    ‘NO,’ replied Ruth crossly. ‘All we can do is pretend we don’t care.’
    ‘How?’ asked Rachel.

    ‘We’ve got to pretend we don’t care,’ Rachel told Phoebe on the train. ‘They’re sending us away to Big Grandma’s, who hates us, for six whole weeks so that they can spend our money in peace, and we’ve got to pretend we don’t care. How?’
    Phoebe, who had never been on a train before, scarcely listened. Six weeks must be a long time, she supposed, since school had closed down as if for ever. Going to Big Grandma’s was very bad news, but it hadn’t quite happened yet, and she still had hopes that it never would. What else was Rachel grumbling about? Money. Her Christmas Present List money that they still hadn’t given her.
    ‘I want a serious word with you girls,’ announced Mrs Conroy.
    ‘Perhaps she’s going to give it to me now,’ thought Phoebe.
    ‘I do not want to hear,’ said Mrs Conroy ominously, ‘of any sort of trouble from you four. The fuss you’ve all been making about this holiday is nothing short of ridiculous. You’ll find you will have a wonderful time …’
    ‘I’ve brought this to put it in,’ interrupted Phoebe, producing her now empty pictures and projects carrier bag.
    ‘Don’t be silly, Phoebe. I hope to goodness you’ll come back with a bit more sense. I’m sure your Grandma won’t put up with half the nonsense your father and I let you get away with.’
    ‘I expect that’s why Uncle Robert ran away,’ put in Ruth gloomily.
    ‘And you are NOT,’ continued Mrs Conroy, ‘to mention Robert at all! Do you understand? I won’t have your Grandma upset by you.’
    ‘What about Big Grandma upsetting us?’ asked Naomi.
    ‘And another thing,’ said Mrs Conroy, ‘You can make up your minds to stop calling her by that silly name.’
    ‘We’ve all got silly names,’ Ruth pointed out.
    ‘You were never such worries when you were babies,’ said Mrs Conroy regretfully.
    ‘We never had so many things to worry us then,’ Naomi said. ‘Does she know we’re coming?’
    Sometimes Mrs Conroy could not believe the idiocy of her own daughters.

Chapter Four
    It was difficult to remember who had first christened Big Grandma. None of the children had ever thought of her as anything else; yet it could not have been their parents because they did not like the name at all. Anyway, they called her that now, without thinking what it meant, or even meaning to be rude.
    There were plenty of reasons why she should be called Big Grandma. For a start she was very tall and muscly, and she ate a lot. Also, she wore men’s pyjamas and drank whisky at bedtime. In a lot of ways she was huge. Her house was very big too; even the toilet was higher than ordinary people’s toilets. It had a wooden seat which always felt warm, and by Monday morning Naomi had decided that the only thing she really liked about Big Grandma’s house was the toilet seat.
    On Monday morning, Mrs Conroy, who had travelled up with the children primarily to make sure they got there, and didn’t escape on the way (as she had heard them planning to do), caught an early train back home to Lincolnshire. Big Grandma drove her to the station in her awful car and refused to let the girls come too. Mrs Conroy said she didn’t want any scenes on the platform, and Big Grandma said they would be more trouble than they were worth. Just before she drove away she