‘Awww!’ The cry was more out of frustration than pain. She seemed doomed to spend half this morning lying in a heap on the floor.

‘Hullo there, do come in!’ a man called out. He marched across the lobby towards her, smart black shoes clickety-clicking on the tiles and – before Maggie could push herself up – he lifted her, as though she were as light as a doll, and set her down on the floor.

‘Oh, thank you!’ she said, brushing herself down and checking her stockings for ladders, to hide her embarrassment.

Eventually, she had to look up at him. He was tall and thin, a little older than her and he was clearly amused by the spectacle she’d just made of herself. His slicked hair and black business suit marked him out as a bank clerk. They were so close she could see the dusting of freckles across his nose and smell coal tar soap on his skin.

He tutted and shook his head in mock despair. ‘Not another young lady, fallin’ at my feet.’ He was a cockney like her and, clearly, he thought himself a comedian, too.

After the morning she’d just had, Maggie was hardly in the mood for jokes but she tried to smile. He was a colleague, after all, and almost certainly her superior; she needed to make a good impression.

She glanced around the lobby. There was a reception desk straight ahead, strangely devoid of a receptionist. A shining chandelier hung from the ceiling and beneath it, in the centre of a round table, stood a huge vase of flowers.

She looked back at the clerk. ‘It’s my first day. Maggie Corbett’s the name.’

He nodded. ‘Ray Maguire, at your service.’

Was he laughing at her? Maggie gazed at him. Those lips were definitely twitching, as though he were about to laugh. But perhaps he always looked like that.

Apart from Mr Maguire, the place seemed empty, the building silent. This wasn’t like any bank she’d been in before. Where was everyone?

He rubbed his hands together. ‘All in one piece, are we? Because—’ he pulled a pocket watch out of his waistcoat and grimaced ‘—I’m ushering everyone through. Rounding up the stragglers.’

The jokiness of a minute ago had disappeared. He was suddenly awfully businesslike. ‘Would you mind coming this way, Miss er … Miss? And if you don’t mind, could you walk quite fast?’

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Maggie said, following Ray Maguire as he set off down a corridor at a fair lick. ‘The bus had to go another way because of the mess on the roads and … Well, it was all Herr Hitler’s fault.’