Chapter One

      Badgers are nocturnal creatures, which means they only come out at night. They’re very shy, with dark fur, beady eyes and a white stripe down their nose. They’re quite large – about the size of a cocker spaniel – and they can’t see very well but their sense of smell and hearing is very good, so wear dark clothes and stay very quiet if you are trying to see one. They growl and play fight and make a lot of noise when they’re eating, and bushes rustle when they walk through the undergrowth. Coming across one in the dark can be very scary, but remember, the badger will be more scared of you than you are of it. Probably.

      — Note from Abby’s notebook.

      Abby Field’s hands were covered in lard, seed and, most unpleasantly of all, dead mealworms. The children standing at the picnic tables in Meadowsweet Nature Reserve’s sunny outdoor area seemed entirely happy to bury their fingers – and forearms in some cases – deep in the mixture, their parents less so. There was one small girl of about five whose face was also partially covered, and warden Gavin, who was ostensibly there to help and who had two girls of his own, was trying desperately not to laugh while her mum picked buggy lard out of her hair.

      A robin – was it Bob, who they had named the previous autumn and who liked to sit on the windowsill of the visitor centre? – was hovering nearby, hopping between table and floor, aware that there would be rich pickings once the children had finished their craft session.

      ‘How’s everyone getting on?’ Abby asked, after she had shaped little Benjy’s mixture into a ball and wiped her hands on an old towel. ‘Does anyone need help?’ About ten arms went into the air, and Abby grinned at Gavin before they each went to the raised hand nearest them.

      ‘We did this at the other place, didn’t we?’ one of the children said to their dad. ‘It was much better, we had a whole tub to take home, and there were TV cameras and everything.’

      Abby caught the man’s eye and he smiled apologetically. Abby tried not to take offence at the boy’s words, but the knowledge that Reston Marsh, the nature reserve a few miles away, which was hosting the television programme Wild Wonders, complete with glamorous presenter Flick Hunter, was not only threatening the future of Meadowsweet but also running similar activities to them, was a blow she didn’t need.

      It was spring on the Suffolk nature reserve, a sunny Saturday that was also, as Gavin was at pains to remind everyone, St Patrick’s Day. The plan was for the reserve staff to head to the Skylark, the quaint country pub in Meadowgreen village, once they had finished work, but Abby’s sister Tessa was coming to visit, and Abby didn’t want to share her with her friends on this occasion.

      As the session came to an end and the children left, carrying their lard balls carefully in cardboard boxes, Abby’s phone beeped. It was her next-door neighbour, and owner of Meadowgreen’s converted chapel library, Octavia Pilch.

       T-minus ten days until Jack Westcoat liftoff!! What is there left to do?

      Abby huffed in frustration. Octavia was organizing the Jack Westcoat liftoff, which was actually an author event in the library, and should know exactly what there was left to do. Besides, Abby only had an hour before her afternoon workshop, making nest boxes with older children, was due to start, and she was desperate for a sandwich. She helped Gavin clear up the picnic tables and headed into the visitor centre.

      She was surprised to see Penelope Hardinge,