Excerpt from Weathering by Lucy Wood, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

She stiffened and turned round slowly. It was Luke, the man who had driven them to the house. 'I meant to do that,' she said. She looked away and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. Waited for him to carry on walking down the path.

'Heading back, are you?' he asked.

Pepper pretended to be very interested in a particular tree. She crouched down and examined it. 'Not yet,' she said. But when Luke shrugged and carried on, she waited a few moments then followed behind, leaving a long gap between them so that he wouldn't know she was there. Luke kept his hands in his pockets and didn't skid once. He whistled something slow between his teeth. He was wearing a shirt and tie under his jacket even though he was just out walking. His skin was very brown and creased, like a cloth after polishing shoes. After a while, he stopped. 'Give us that camera a minute,' he called back. She stayed where she was and held the camera tight.

'Don't be a moron about it,' he said. 'I don't know much about them, but I can show you how to take the lens cap off at least.' He came over and showed her, then twisted the lens so things looked clearer. 'I think this is the focus,' he said. 'Do you know what that is?'

'Yes,' Pepper told him. You needed it for school and she didn't have any.

'Have a gander through him now,' Luke said, passing her the camera.

She looked and saw crispy lichen right in front of her face, even though it was on a branch above. Then a mushroom on the ground, bronze and sticky. She prodded it with her foot.

'I wouldn't touch that,' Luke said.

'Why?' She reached towards the mushroom.

Luke kicked at a pine cone. 'It's a death cap,' he said. 'Liver failure, chronic pain. It would be a slow death, maybe take a couple of weeks.'

The mushroom gleamed like a coin. Pepper aimed the camera at it and clicked the button.

There were roots all over the path and Pepper tripped, sprawled, tripped, sprawled. She tried to catch up with Luke. 'Are there big grey birds here? By the water?' Luke seemed to be listening for something. 'Hear those trees creaking. Takes me back to being on the boats that does. The noises the sea could make – no one else would believe it, sometimes like an engine, sometimes chalk screeching on a board. Thinking maybe I could write something for the newspaper. But I don't know if they'd want it. Probably no one would want to read something like that.' He turned to Pepper like he wanted her opinion.

'No,' she said. 'They probably wouldn't.' It was important not to lie.

Luke stumbled over a root and mud splashed up Pepper's leg. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Maybe you're right.' The path levelled and he stopped and said something to a boulder, except it wasn't a boulder, it was a man leaning over a wide bend in the river wearing a grey coat. There was a boy sitting next to him. They both had fishing rods in the water and there was a net and bucket. Inside the bucket, three dark fish. 'Not much today Clapper,' Luke said.

'Nah,' the man replied.

The boy stared at Pepper and she stared back. He had very neat hair, like he had just combed it. A pair of thick glasses that he pushed up his nose.

'That's Petey,' Luke told her. 'Lives with Clapper. He's about your age I'd say. This is Pearl's granddaughter.'

Clapper didn't look up. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Down at the house.'

Luke looked once more in the bucket, then carried on along the path. Pepper followed. When she turned back to look, Clapper was watching the water carefully and his hands were very steady.

Excerpted from Weathering by Summer Wood. Copyright © 2016 by Summer Wood. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.