They parked outside and got out. It was the beginning of May and there was a startlingly blue sky and yet Amber’s breath still crystallised in the air. She doubted it was much above forty. On Main Street there had been no snow, but up here, elevated slightly, it was still packed tightly at the sides of the road.

Amber had spent her whole life feeling miserable in the heat, so she wasn’t about to start complaining about the cold. Even so, the temperature was making her hands throb with a renewed vigour, and she hurried into the motel while Milo carried in their bags.

Inside, it was warmer. The wooden floorboards creaked under her weight. A moose head hung over the front desk, its terrific antlers rising to the high ceiling. A man came out of the back room. He looked young, in his thirties, but his side-parted hair had already gone grey and he held himself so stiffly that a sudden draught might possibly have snapped him in half.

He saw them and looked confused. Amber smiled, and led Milo to the desk. The man wore a little badge that identified him as Kenneth.

“Hi, Kenneth,” said Amber.

Kenneth didn’t answer. He had a mole under his right eye.

“We’d like a couple of rooms, please.”

Kenneth looked at them for quite a long time before speaking.

“I wasn’t expecting visitors,” he said.

This struck Amber as a somewhat strange thing to say.

“This is a motel, isn’t it?” Milo asked.

“Indeed it is,” said Kenneth.

“And you rent out rooms to visitors, don’t you?”

“Indeed we do,” said Kenneth.

“So do you have any spare rooms to rent out to us?”

“Indeed I have,” said Kenneth. “I just wasn’t expecting you, that’s all.”

Silence threatened to descend.

“Should we have called ahead?” Amber asked.

Kenneth blinked at her. “We don’t take reservations over the phone.”

“Online?”

“We don’t have a website,” he said. “My mother never approved of the internet. She said the internet was a filthy place for perverts and degenerates who only want to watch pornography.”

“It also has cats,” said Amber.

“We don’t allow animals,” Kenneth said quickly. “My sister is allergic to animal hair. If you have cats, you can’t stay here.”

“We don’t have cats,” Milo said. “We don’t have any animals. Is there anyone else staying here right now?”

“No.”

“Then could we please have two rooms?”

Kenneth hesitated.

“I’m a little puzzled,” said Amber. “You don’t take bookings online or over the phone, and obviously you don’t like it when people turn up unannounced … so how does anyone actually stay here?”

“The motel is not very busy,” Kenneth said.

“I’m not surprised.”

“I can let you stay,” Kenneth decided, “but only until Wednesday. On Wednesday you must leave. We are fully booked up for Wednesday.”

Amber frowned. “How?”