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‘Let’s build one now.’ Liberty reached for his hand, pulling him over to the terrace that looked out over the fjord, not even giving him the option of refusing. ‘We’ll build him here so he can admire the view.’

Then she set about gathering snow and piling it all up, and soon he was helping her. It puzzled him how enjoyable it was, as making decorations had been enjoyable, and he tried to think about the last time he’d actively enjoyed himself so much and couldn’t remember. Enjoying himself had never featured highly on his list of things to do.

Perhaps it was ridiculous to enjoy something as childish as making a snowman, yet he got pleasure out of watching Liberty’s shining face as she patted the snow into a big round ball. In the smiles she sent him as she directed the proceedings, bright and with a hint of mischief.

Within an hour, they had the snowman standing and Liberty had found a couple of sticks for his arms, while he found stones for the eyes and mouth.

‘We need a carrot,’ she said with some conviction. ‘For his nose. He cannot remain noseless.’

‘I’ll get one,’ Kai offered, because she was right, the snowman definitely needed a nose. He came back a couple of minutes later with a suitable carrot and placed it himself, then stood back with Liberty to admire their handiwork.

There was a curious expression on her face as she stared at the snowman, one he couldn’t read.

‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Is he missing something?’

She didn’t look at him, her smile fading. ‘He’s missing a heart.’ There was a strange edge in her voice, and before he could speak, she’d turned to him suddenly. ‘It wasn’t right what she did to you. You know that, don’t you, Kai?’

At first, he wasn’t sure what she was asking him and then, abruptly, he understood. Neve. She was talking about Neve.

‘What do you mean what she did to me?’ he asked stiffly, even though a part of him knew and had always known.

Liberty’s amber gaze was very direct. ‘You asked me before if she abused you and I—’

‘It wasn’t abuse.’ He kept his voice cold, hard, ignoring the strange and formless anger that sat in his gut. ‘I was eighteen, and she was beautiful, and I wanted her.’

Her gaze flickered. ‘She brought you up, though.’

‘So?’ He stared back at her, his anger burning hotter. ‘She wasn’t my mother.’

‘No, but she was an authority figure.’

There was something about the way she was looking at him, something sharp and focused, as if she was seeing something in him that he hadn’t realized was there.

You know what she’s seeing. A weak and powerless little boy. A victim.

He shoved that thought away hard. He’d been eighteen. A man, not a little boy, and he’d certainly never been a fucking victim.

‘I’m tired of talking about Neve,’ he snapped, changing the subject. ‘What about you? What upset you back in the house?’

Colour crept into her skin, but she didn’t look away. ‘I was angry. Angry about what happened to you.’

‘Nothing happened to me.’ There was a strange pinching sensation behind his breastbone, and it only made him angrier. ‘Why do you keep insisting that something did?’

‘Because you’re different.’ She was suddenly fierce. ‘You used to be so kind and patient and caring, and now you’re…cold. And hard. It’s like something inside you iced over and froze the rest of you along with it.’

‘Of course I’m different,’ he said. ‘I grew up.’

But she was shaking her head, an expression that looked like grief on her face. ‘No, it’s more than that. You were my friend. The first friend I ever had. You were twelve and I was only eight. Yet you didn’t seem to mind an eight-year-old hanging around you all the time. You were always so very kind and so very patient.’

He stared at her. It felt as if she was talking about a stranger, someone he didn’t know, a person he didn’t remember being. ‘I don’t remember,’ he said. ‘All Neve told me was that I had to look to the future and not dwell on the past, so I did. It was for my own good.’

‘And when she isolated you?’ There were sparks in Libby’s gaze now. ‘Because she did, Kai. A boy all alone with only tutors for friends… Was that for your own good, too?’

His anger flared like a bonfire in a strong wind, flames leaping high, but he crushed it. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said coldly.

‘Don’t I? Look at you. You’re cold. Hard. Distant. You’re basically that bloody snowman, nothing but ice all the way through. How is that good for you, Kai? Tell me.’

She doesn’t understand.