I found brief refuge in a pantry, quite penned in, so many jars upon shelves up and down, so many different colours. I could imagine a demijohn labelled LUCY PENNANT and myself, murky, swimming inside. People ran past, but no one came in. There were great noises in the distance, back down the cellar lanes where no doubt that great thing – what was it? – was preoccupying them very much, and suddenly there was an enormous crash, so large and loud the whole house seemed to rumble from it. I thought I should be pelted by the jars, they jumped and clinked on their shelves so. A jar of piccalilli mustard danced towards the edge and before I could get to it, it smashed maliciously to the ground. That did it. I got out and found myself very shortly in the servants’ dining hall. No one else there, only benches and stools. I thought then that that clanking thing, whatever it was back there, it must have pulled the roof down. And sure enough I heard several people screaming for a while, screaming and not stopping screaming, from bloody hurt or from sheer shock I couldn’t say. Perhaps it was just at the sight of it, such a queer unnatural thing as it was. Lots of footsteps, so many people rushing about, I thought surely, surely someone will catch me any moment. I couldn’t think what to do. I fumbled and I panicked. I’ll get out of here. I’ll stay here. What to do? What to do? I found myself a cupboard. It was one of the store cupboards in the dining hall for tablecloths and such, all very dusty there and unloved and abandoned, that was the place, for a bit, for a moment. So I might think.

The cupboard was deep and quite high. I put myself in there and just breathed, that was all. If they find you, I thought in that small space, if they find you they shall certainly tug you out and do their skinning, for they want you dead, Lucy Pennant, they’re coming after you. That noise was them probably seeing to that great thing, so now it’s you they’ll come hunting for, now it’s your turn. Strange to be so important suddenly.

Think of it, I thought, like a game, like a game back in Filching, hide and seek. I always knew where to hide then in the old boarding house. Well then, there are many places to hide in this old palace, hundreds must be. You’ll be all right. Most of all, calm, calm yourself.