Ángela had to concede that her father was smart, but she wasn’t convinced on Ned’s front. She narrowed her eyes as she considered the plastic figurines, observing the three smallest, all with flaming red hair. Merida’s ire with her trio of brothers made her all the more relatable to Ángela. So far, Ned hadn’t done anything except divert adult attention away from more important people.

“Girls are smarter than boys,” she muttered under her breath, which was surely a universal truth. Papa might be smart, but he wasn’t as smart as mama. He never noticed that the servants all lived in fear of his precious perfect daughter. Concealment of unruly behaviour was more difficult from Croe, who seemed altogether more grounded in reality.

Although, she was full of dubious wisdom today. Ángie cast her a sideways glance when the conversation turned to shooting.

“When would you not need to be efficient?” She questioned doubtfully, quirking an eyebrow in a decidedly Mallos-esque fashion.

Fortunately, she was quickly distracted by the offer of gifts. At Croe’s suggestion, Ángela made a beeline for the rack of Merida dresses and spent several minutes agonising over the different available styles. The satin blue one which Merida’s mother had made her wear for the party was the prettiest, but they’d shown in Brave how difficult it was to shoot in that. The darker blue-green dress was much more practical, although the Disney Store’s version had more pretty gold trimmings than the weary, worn version that Merida had paraded around in in the film. Ángie finally pulled off one of the darker blue-green dresses in the right size and pressed it into her mother’s arms along with a matching cape and the horse plushie. She then turned her attention to the assortment of bows and quivers, but quickly turned her nose up at the plastic arrows with foam tips.

“These are rubbish.” She curled her lip in distaste and took hold of her mother’s hand. “Mama, can I have a real bow? Can you teach me?” Her large, dark eyes seem to grow wider as they took on a pleading note.

Once the Merida merchandise had been agreed upon, Ángie dragged Croe back to the centre of the shop, near where they’d seen the actress playing Rapunzel. Here, lined up along one wall, collectable Disney princesses made up to look like Barbie dolls sat stiffly in clear plastic boxes. Ángie scanned the sea of white faces, searching for her second favourite princess: Jasmine. She spotted the single brown face on a higher shelf fairly quickly and pointed upwards. She was about to ask Croe to fetch it down when another darker-skinned doll further down the shelf caught her eye. Frowning curiously, Ángie shifted along to get a better look and felt her jaw drop open as she got her first good glimpse at the doll labelled Elena of Avalor.

“Mama,” she breathed, pointing at it with reverence.

Her skin tone was similar to Ángie’s, although her hair and eyes were a shade lighter. Her stunning red dress was clearly meant to look Spanish and it strongly resembled some of the garments in Ángela’s wardrobe at home. The cardboard background behind her was printed with a scene of a castle with distinctly Mediterranean architectural style.