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your sister miss her mum?”
    This finally made Kurt stop on the footpath and turn to her. “You ever see Snow White ?”
    Penny barely had time to nod before he turned back to the path and started walking again, leaving her to catch up.
    “Well when I was a kid, I used to think they must have based that movie on my stepmom. I thought my dad’s new wife was the evil stepmother come to life. Dad worshipped the ground she walked on. She was pretty, and she was twenty years younger than him. No matter how she treated me and Ann, he just didn’t see it. She was cruel and selfish, but he loved her blindly with a passion.”
    They passed under a leafless tree, the branches just starting to bud. Kurt reached out to snap off one of the dead twigs and began swishing it as he walked, the thin wood making a hissing sound in the still air.
    “I was twelve, and Ann was just a baby when my stepmom left us all for some guy she met in a bar. Some guy richer than my dad. But that didn’t stop her taking pretty much all the cash from Dad’s hotel business with her when she left. Left us all high and dry.” He cast the twig aside. “Dad was a broken man after that.”
    In the silence that followed, they heard the muffled sound of hooves in the mist. Kurt slowed to a halt, lifting his head before turning to face Penny. There was no bitterness in his features, just a sort of weary resignation.
    “So you see passion and love stuff isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It broke us as a family. My sister didn’t have a great childhood after that.”
    “Neither did you,” Penny cried. She was beginning to realise how like Kurt’s chivalry it was to think only of his sister and not himself. And how all of this made a lot of other things about him fall into place, too. Seeing the look on her face, Kurt smiled, lifting a gentle finger to touch what could be seen of her cheek between her hat and scarf.
    “Guess that makes three of us,” he said. “You remind me a little of my kid sister.”
    The sound of horses’ hooves was nearing, and Kurt swivelled round, missing the wince that crumpled Penny’s face at his last words. Kid sister. Is that really how he thought of her? But she hadn’t time to reflect on this sudden and devastating insight. A group of riders was approaching through the mist. On seeing him, one of the riders waved her arm in the air and trotted closer. Penny took a few nervous steps backward.
    “Kurt.” The woman’s clear voice reached them above the clomping of hooves. “Hello stranger. Long time no see.”
    Penny watched from a safe distance as Kurt stepped up to the horse and rider. From where she was standing, the horse was a black, dangerous giant. Great clouds of steam were blowing from enormous pink nostrils. He—or she—Penny couldn’t tell which—let out a nicker of recognition on seeing Kurt before dropping a huge head to paw the ground. Kurt reached up to give the horse a careless pat on the neck—risking life and limb, as far as Penny could tell from her nervous position several feet away.
    “Hey, Cass,” Kurt said. “Good to see you. How you doing?”
    The rider lifted the reins, controlling the horse in a swift, elegant movement. Tall, willowy, red hair and—Penny would have bet on it—knew how to throw a lasso. This was probably Kurt’s dream woman come to life. Definitely not someone who reminded him of his kid sister , she told herself bitterly. She watched from her position of safety as the woman leaned nearer Kurt, controlling the horse’s restless stamping with an easy twitch of the reins.
    “I’m doing well,” she said, in a voice that carried far, despite her slight build. “And how about you? We haven’t seen you at the stables for ages .”
    The woman reached down to pat Kurt’s hand in a teasing way, her gloved fingers lingering just a little longer than necessary. Kurt lifted his hand from the bridle and took a step backward.
    “I’ve been kinda busy,” he said. “I