‘Because it’s better if we get away quietly. If he shoots his way in, if the police are called, think of the stories in the newspapers. You’d be damned as Mad Rose forever after, no matter what nasty things about Dr McWhirter are uncovered. Here. Help me off with my stays.’

Daisy slid out the files and then put her dress on again. ‘Now, how do I get up to that window?’

‘We’ll need to stack up the luggage and climb up,’ said Rose. Heaving and panting, using a cabin trunk as the base, they put suitcase after suitcase on top of it.

Daisy scrambled up and got to work on the bars with one of her files.

‘Oh, Rose, this is going to take ages,’ she mourned.

‘I’ll look through the other suitcases,’ said Rose, ‘and see if I can find something to use as a weapon.’

Daisy worked away diligently while below her, Rose opened case after case. ‘Nothing I can use so far,’ said Rose. ‘How are you getting on?’

‘Oh,’ wailed Daisy as the file she was using snapped. ‘I’ll never do this. I’ve only got one file left.’

‘Keep trying,’ urged Rose. ‘Wait, move away from the window a little. I need light. I think there’s a candle here.’ Daisy crouched down below the window.

‘Yes, and a box of vestas.’ Rose struck a match and lit the candle. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Now I can have a proper search.’ For a while there was no sound but the steady rasp of the file. Then Rose, her voice quivering with excitement, said, ‘Daisy, you can stop filing. Come and see what I have found.’

Daisy scrambled down the ‘ladder’ of cases and joined her. ‘It’s a gun bag with a shotgun and cartridges,’ said Rose, her eyes gleaming in the candle-light.

‘Do you know how to use it?’

‘Yes. I got one of the keepers to show me.’

‘But how will that get us through the cellar door?’

‘I’ll shoot a great big hole in the lock. Hold the candle high while I load this thing.’

Daisy watched, fascinated. ‘I never knew ladies had any useful skills at all,’ she said.

‘Some of us have. There! Now let’s cut bits off our petticoats to plug our ears. I don’t want to go deaf.

‘Now I will fire and reload quickly in case I need to use this on Philips. Believe me, Daisy, I never would dream of killing anyone, but I will kill that man if he gets in my way. It’s a double-barrelled shotgun. Let’s give that door both barrels.’

Rose hurried up the stairs. Daisy, holding the candle, followed her. ‘Back off,’ ordered Rose. ‘I’m going to fire.’

The resultant blast was tremendous. Not only was the lock shot but there was a jagged gaping hole in the door.