Dora closed her strong jaws on the gloved hand and Ron swore. Once a ferret got their teeth into something it was the devil’s own job to get them to release it – and it damned well hurt. Ron knew there was only one thing for it, and as Peter lifted the front of the dresser to give him more room, he dragged Dora out, her teeth still embedded in his gloved fingers.

Frank grabbed her scruff and held her determinedly until she was forced to relax her jaws enough for his father to get his hand out of the glove. As Ron sat on the floor amid the debris that had fallen from the top of the dresser, to nurse his bleeding, aching hand, Frank soothed Dora by gently stroking her stomach until she went into a dreamlike trance.

‘To be sure, Da, that was an eejit thing to be doing. Did ye not think the wee girls might be frightened to see such strange beasts?’

‘Aye,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘I realise now it was daft. But how was I to know Emily would react like that?’ He scrambled to his feet and went to wash the puncture wounds beneath the cold tap. ‘And we’ve yet to find Flora,’ he added dolefully.

Harvey’s barking came distantly from upstairs, so Frank deposited the now calm Dora in his father’s deep coat pocket and, shooting him a look of exasperation mixed with humour, followed the sound, the other men on his heels.

Ron realised Martin must have soothed the girls out of their hysterics, for there was no sound coming from the dining room. He dried his hand, hunted out an old tube of antiseptic cream from the dresser drawer and smeared some over the wounds before following the others. The kitchen was already a mess, the dining room stank – and the Lord only knew what he’d find upstairs.

Flora was on top of Cordelia’s wardrobe, the floor now littered with the hatboxes which had been stored there. Their contents had been spilled across the carpet, and Harvey was trampling them in his eagerness to reach Flora who arched her back and spat at him.

‘Get out of there, ye heathen beast,’ stormed Ron, aghast at the damage his animals had caused. He ordered Harvey to sit and stay with such command that the dog squirmed beneath the bed. ‘Shut the door, Jack. We can’t have her getting away from us again.’

The men quickly removed the hats and boxes from the floor to the bed, and Daisy scrambled up with them to sit amid the chaos and enjoy the show.

Ron turned to his son. ‘Right, Frank. You take the left, I’ll take the right – and, Jack, you stay at the front with Robert and Peter. She could go in any direction, so be alert and ready to grab her.’

Flora eyed them, gave a high-pitched screech and weaved back and forth trying to decide how to escape. As the men reached for her, she took a flying leap over their heads and landed on the dressing table. Glass jars and bowls went skidding to the floor, hairbrushes, combs and pins scattering in all directions, and as the men advanced on her, she leapt from the dressing table to the bedside cabinet, sending the lamp crashing to the floor and tipping the glass of water over Cordelia’s new paperback book.