She shifted fast and it was hard for me to remember exactly the routes back down. Each set of stairs was different: one was stone, one was rusted metal, one was wooden and very chipped and broken, one was wooden but dusted and polished with a carpet runner all the way up and brass carpet rods.

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ I said.

‘Not to you,’ said the Iremonger.

‘Why is it built like this?’ I asked.

‘It is how they like it, them that live here.’ The Iremonger wiped her nose with her wrist. ‘Many are sick the first few times they come up, it’s quite usual. Some are sick each time they come up no matter how often they’ve come up previous, no matter that they do it daily, still they will be sick. You’re holding a bucket, Iremonger, you can always use that.’

‘No, I don’t think I’m going to be sick,’ I said, ‘I should like to see more of it.’

‘Not to! Stay in the rooms I take you to, not for you to go about. Mustn’t. And if you get lost don’t head upwards, you keep heading upwards and you come to the attics, see, and in the attics are all the bats, and they are biting bats and dangerous. Don’t get lost. Mustn’t. Mrs Piggott!’

‘How much of it is there?’

‘Much.’

‘They must be very rich, the Iremongers. And are they also,’ I wondered, walking around so many empty places, ‘quite small in number?’

‘Mrs Piggott!’

‘And perhaps a little shy?’

‘Piggott!’ she snorted, stopping, turning around. ‘Have you ever seen one of the family, a proper one?’

‘I have,’ I said. ‘Cusper Iremonger.’

‘Ah, but he doesn’t live in, so he don’t count.’

‘Have you seen one that does?’

‘Not close to,’ she said. ‘I saw one once from a great distance coming forward, gave me a terrible turn. I managed to hide away behind a sofa, I was there several hours, until I was certain he had gone.’

‘Why, what would happen if you hadn’t hidden?’

‘I don’t like to think on it.’

‘Why not?’

‘They’re deep!’

‘Well, and what does that mean?’

‘And they’re fast!’

‘Well, so am I.’

‘And they’re wicked!’

‘Are they? What do they do?’

‘Take. They take.’

‘I should like to see one.’

‘Mrs Piggott!’

‘What happens if I come across one when I’m making a fire?’

‘You must hide yourself.’

‘And if there’s just one there before me and I haven’t had a chance to hide?’

‘Won’t happen.’

‘Why not?’