During my formative years, I used to spend the summer holidays with my Aunt Sue and her daughter Sally.

I admired my cousin very much, and wanted to impress her – but she always seemed to treat me as much younger than she was, although there was less than a year between us

. Sally was very pretty, with coppery hair, brown eyes and a warm cheerful face that was never far from a smile.

My mother often pointed out to me how much better behaved Sally was than I, and it was well known that her mother had used spanking as the main punishment when Sally was younger.

What I didn’t realize for some time was that Aunt Sue had no hesitation in giving her daughter a good hiding .

One summer, I was staying for some weeks with my aunt.

As usual, I was trying to show Sally that I was ‘grown up’ and so one day I managed to buy some cigarettes from a local shop.

I’d never smoked before and neither had Sally – she told me it was absolutely forbidden, and that we would be in serious trouble if her mother found out.

I thought this was just a challenge, and persuaded my cousin to try some of the cigarettes.

We went to place by a stream in the nearby wood where we thought we wouldn’t be disturbed.

We both smoked a couple of ciggies but decided we didn’t like them.

Indeed, Sally looked quite ill and when she got home, she rushed to the bathroom and threw up.

Her mother was obviously concerned and asked what the matter was.

It pretty soon became clear that we were hiding something and Aunt Sue, who was always very sharp, told us to turn out our pockets.

She picked up the packet of cigarettes.

“Are these yours?” she asked me quietly. I nodded. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so grown up. “And you’ve both been smoking them?” She looked at us and we both muttered ‘yes’. “Right,” she said, “Sally, go up to your room.” Sally didn’t say anything but looked close to tears as she left the room.