‘No,’ said Jane. ‘We hide the pod somewhere far away from here and live in the garden. This is our way in and out.’

Luke hadn’t finished being horrified. ‘Live in the garden?’

‘Why not? It’s spring. The weather’s warming up nicely. Shouldn’t be a problem. And I strongly suspect that by the time winter comes around, we’ll be dead anyway.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said Luke, cheerfully. ‘Because I’m not living in a garden forever.’

Jane said nothing. The chances of them being offered the opportunity of living anywhere for any length of time were non-existent. She was convinced that by this time tomorrow they would have been recaptured. But Luke had risked himself for her. As had Matthew. The least she could do was put a brave face on things.

Similar thoughts were running through Luke’s mind. He could only begin to imagine the cold fury with which the Time Police would hunt them down. His own estimate of their survival time was slightly less than Jane’s, but having orchestrated her escape, he felt he owed it to her to put a brave face on things.

‘Come on. Let’s see where it goes.’

They climbed through the window and into the corridor, turning sharp left to see an old wooden door ahead of them. Luke pushed but nothing budged.

‘Try pulling,’ said Jane.

He scowled at her and pulled. The door opened reluctantly, scraping a path through dust, broken twigs and dirt.

‘No one’s been here for a while,’ said Luke.

They squeezed through and found themselves above street level.

‘Split level,’ announced Luke. ‘Now we’re on the first floor.’

And they were. They were standing on a narrow balcony with a broken wooden railing. At the far end, a framework of rickety steps led down to the street.

‘This is brilliant,’ said Luke. ‘Look, there’s a way down. Someone had an outside entrance. We can come and go through this door and no one will associate it with the garden behind.’

Privately, Jane doubted that. She was certain the locals were perfectly well aware of this entrance and would have long since rifled the house and garden for anything valuable. After all, even the statues in the garden had gone, leaving only empty plinths. But it was better than she’d hoped for. And infinitely better than what had been happening to her only a few hours before.

So she nodded, smiled and said, ‘Yes, it’s perfect.’

They spent the rest of the day making themselves comfortable.

All Time Police pods are kept in a constant state of readiness. This one – their escape pod, as Luke insisted on describing it – was fully stocked, containing food for ten days and, for some reason, an enormous number of bed sheets, all neatly folded in the corner.

Jane held one up and raised her eyebrows.