Nichola Sutton was nine years old. She had lived in Penny Hasset all her life and although her world view was somewhat limited by circumstance, she did know what aliens were.
All the hoo-ha had turned the grown-ups into jumpy, shouty, or overly huggy individuals, and suddenly they paid a lot more attention to where you were. Nichola Sutton liked her freedom, so this new development was annoying.
Apparently the aliens were spreading across the country, but somehow she doubted that Penny Hasset was on the list. Nothing unusual happened here, it was a small, boring market town off the beaten track that had peaked in 1682. And it was a long way from Yorkshire – she knew this because they had gone up to the Yorkshire coast last summer for a very rainy and cold beach holiday. Nichola had not m
