‘Don’t know. Look in that cupboard.’ He pointed to one in the corner of the sitting room, the last place anyone would put blankets. ‘I’m going to my bed now. It’s a double.’ Then he opened his door and disappeared through it.

Thea took on her landlady persona. ‘I don’t suppose any of you brought sleeping bags?’

Molly looked at her like someone who, even if she knew what a sleeping bag was, certainly didn’t own one.

Petal – who had a very expensive sleeping bag, guaranteed to keep out an arctic blizzard, but hadn’t brought it with her – snapped, ‘No!’

‘I’ve got one for Toby,’ said Ben. ‘But as it’s only big enough for him, it won’t be much use for anyone else.’

‘It’ll do as an extra cover,’ said Thea. ‘I’ll look for sheets. If only I’d known about this cupboard before,’ she muttered, as she sifted through Ben’s dead uncle’s old bed linen and blankets. None of it was in very good condition and most of it would have been fine for Lara. Thea began to regret the bobbly lemon sheet she had sacrificed earlier. Petal would have grumbled but it would have covered her bed. Now it was under six little sucking, tube-shaped pups.

‘Oh, how sweet!’ said Petal, who had discovered the puppies. ‘Aren’t they gorgeous?’

Lara growled and wagged her tail. She was very proud of her brood but also protective.

Molly looked over the back of the sofa. Her merry glow was fading, fatigue and alcohol catching up with her. ‘They do look a bit ratlike and there are so many of them.’

‘There are six,’ said Ben. ‘That’s not many at all, for a big breed. They can have dozens – up to a dozen, anyway.’

Molly groaned. ‘I’ve got a headache. I think I’ve had too much to drink.’

Thea had stolen the hot-water bottle from Toby’s bed and put it in Molly’s. She had managed to find just about enough sheets and blankets for both beds in the back bedroom to be decently covered. Ignoring their complaints, she herded Molly and Petal into it and, before shutting the door, said firmly, ‘No, there isn’t any hot water. You’ll have to wash in the morning.’ Actually, she had no idea if there was hot water or not, but she wasn’t having Molly and Petal fighting for the bathroom mirror at this time of night. No one else would have a cat in hell’s chance of getting in before Christmas.