She was about to run towards the pod to help when two men suddenly erupted through a bush, crashed into the wooden trellis supporting the vines and brought the whole lot down on top of themselves. Once carefully pruned ornamental shrubs were crushed beneath them as they fought for possession of something she couldn’t see. And this was a proper fight. They were serious. She could hear them grunting and cursing as they rolled about in the undergrowth, breaking branches and snapping twigs beneath them. She could hear the impact of their blows. First one was on top, viciously punching and kicking, and then the other was doing the same. They were big men and there was a lot of power there.

She stared. Anders and Grint were fighting. Why would they be doing such a thing? One or both of them must be the source of the gunshot. She should do something.

‘Over here. Help. Over here!’ She grabbed a piece of wood from the shattered trellis and hurled herself on Grint – who had the misfortune to be on top at the time – beating him around the head and shoulders which probably didn’t do him a lot of harm. The wood was old and rotten and disintegrated with every blow, although she might have given him a splinter.

Unexpectedly, they rolled in her direction and she couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough. They knocked her legs out from underneath her and she fell heavily to the fortunately soft ground. The next moment they’d rolled on top of her and she was crushed under their combined weight. Abandoning the piece of wood, she struck out wildly. ‘Get off me. Get off.’

Not surprisingly, no one took any notice. Something heavy and cold fell on her face and instinctively, she grabbed at it.

A gun. An old-fashioned pistol.

She barely had time to wonder before Luke and Markham appeared on the scene. She heard Markham shout for her to get clear, wondered how on earth she was supposed to do that with two of the biggest men in the Time Police sprawled across her and then lost control of her arms, her legs, her entire body, her thoughts – everything – as he fired his stun gun. Every muscle in her body contracted painfully for a very long second or so before relaxing to such an extent she was vaguely grateful she’d had the opportunity to water that bush a moment ago.

She was struggling to breathe. Time Police officers are noted for their substantialness and both Grint and Anders were very substantial. The pain was subsiding but she rather thought she’d opt out of events for a few minutes. Just lie here and look up at the darkening sky. A faint star had emerged. It was very pretty. Cold and remote . . .