We Deveauxs preferred to talk you to death, rather than face you in physical combat.

Well, what now? You have no job. I have no job. Wanna play Jenga?

I envisioned huge piles of the Elf Hotel flying off the belt, taking down everybody in sight. I had seen pictures of that Elf Hotel - it had sharp candy-cane spires that could easily impale someone. If anyone was ever going to be killed by an Elf Hotel, it would be my parents.

I looked at the stained-glass image of the lamb in the window above me, but that only reminded me that lambs are famous for being led to slaughter, or sometimes hanging out with lions in ill-advised relationships.

Keep calm and carry on. Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.

This wasn't a position she wanted to be in. And yet . . . yet she knew that she was going to do it anyway.

People were freaked out, but they showed it in weird ways. Back home, people would have been weeping and doing a lot of very public group hugs. At Wexford people just aggressively pretended nothing had happened.