She gave him instructions about how to find his destination and he smiled again. ‘Thank you so much. The satnav wasn’t co-operating today. I’m only going to the house to do a valuation.’

‘Valuation?’ said Gilly, her attention caught.

He nodded. ‘Yes. I’m doing a valuation for a friend.’ He didn’t seem in any particular hurry to get going. ‘Here’s my card.’

Gilly took it and read it. There was his name, Leo Simmons, and a string of letters afterwards, none of which meant anything to Gilly. ‘So do you do valuations as your job?’

‘Not exclusively but it’s part of what I do.’ He paused. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘It’s just … Oh, nothing.’ She stopped and realised he was waiting. ‘I think I ought to get my house valued,’ said Gilly quickly, before she could change her mind.

‘It’s never a bad thing,’ said Leo quietly, ‘although I can see you’re not quite happy about it. Knowledge is power, after all.’

‘It is! I’ll make an appointment,’ said Gilly, holding his card tightly and getting mud on it.

‘I tell you what, unless you’re busy later, why don’t I do this house up the road and then come back and do yours?’

‘Excellent idea,’ said Gilly. Then I can’t back out, she added to herself. Knowledge was indeed power and having her own valuation done meant Cressida couldn’t start telling her how much valuable real estate she was sitting on.

‘Brilliant. I’ll be round in about an hour.’

Which gave Gilly an hour to give the house another tidy in his honour.

Gilly kept everywhere open to the public immaculate, which included the kitchen. But her own bedroom would have put any teenage girl’s to shame – in fact, she thought, it could belong to very untidy teenage twins. But as with so many occupations, running a B & B had an element of smoke and mirrors about it and making a room, even her own, look good in a very short time wasn’t much of a challenge to Gilly.

The first thing she did was take the duvet off the bed. Then every item of clothing that wasn’t dirty (in which case it went in the capacious laundry basket) was laid on the bed. Floordrobe became bed-drobe. When she was satisfied there was nothing else lying about she laid the duvet carefully over the top. A few scatter cushions, artfully placed, and the room was instantly tidy.

The en-suite bathroom took a little longer but she had time to refresh her make-up before she hid it all away in the cupboard behind the mirror. Leo wouldn’t need to open the cupboard to value the house and if he looked like doing so, she’d stop him.