‘There’s no way through from the cellar,’ Jago went on. ‘I’ve been through every possible solution, and this is the only one. We have to get a ladder out of this window and you have to climb down and bring the kitten up. Maybe in a bucket?’

Helena swallowed as she contemplated her task. Refusing wasn’t an option but she felt perspiration prick along her hairline at the prospect of a ladder and a small space. She wiped her hands down the side of her jeans. ‘OK, let’s do it.’

Jago went to fetch a ladder while Helena did some deep breathing which was somewhat disturbed by the sound of an anguished mother cat – Zuleika – trying to escape from behind a door. The yowling and the scratching was agonising to hear.

‘Right,’ Jago said cheerily, carrying an extending ladder, unaware of Helena’s misgivings. ‘I’ll try not to squash the kitten when I put the ladder down.’

‘Is there room for me as well as the ladder?’

‘Check for yourself.’ He was struggling to manoeuvre the ladder and was obviously surprised by her question.

Helena didn’t move until the ladder was in place and then she didn’t bother to look – knowing wouldn’t help. ‘OK!’ she said brightly. ‘I’m going down!’

Getting out of the window wasn’t straightforward. It involved balancing on the window ledge as she was too short to just swing her leg over to the ladder, which wasn’t quite long enough to reach Helena’s level.

‘I could get a taller ladder,’ Jago offered after a bit of undignified heaving on Helena’s part and shoving from him.

‘It’s all right,’ she said, panting slightly, ‘my foot’s on the top rung now.’

‘Before you go down, take this.’ Jago handed her a flexible plastic trug with a rope tied to the handle. ‘Put her in this and I can haul her up. Then all you need to concentrate on is getting up the ladder.’

He made it sound so easy, thought Helena. It was easy – a few steps down, scoop up the kitten, put her in the bucket and then back up the ladder and away, out of the coffin-shaped space and back into the house. Piece of cake.

Physically it was easy, she told herself, trying to forget her fear of confined spaces. But trying to forget her fear brought it to the forefront of her mind. Her foot slipped on the muddy ladder and suddenly she was nearly stepping on the kitten. The space was too narrow for her to move in.

Jago, leaning out of the window, saw the problem. ‘I’ll have to withdraw the ladder,’ he said. ‘There’s not room for it and you down there. Stand on one leg until I get it out of the way. Then I’ll pass down the bucket.’