I pick up a piece of wreckage from the floor. It’s part of the trunk. I’m going to miss that old thing – it’s been here for as long as I can remember. Probably no one would have come back for it now, but still, I hate things to be lost permanently like that.

“Hello?” I say, as loudly as I dare, looking around. “Are you there?”

Silence.

I make my way to the window. I should close it – it’s freezing in here now – but I decide to leave it open, just a sliver. The snow outside has been replaced by a creeping sea mist, which glides past the window in upright wisps. Like ghosts.

She’s well and truly gone, and who can blame her? But I put the woolly hat on the windowsill where it can be seen, just in case.

I start to tidy up, but it’s a gloomy business seeing all the poor lost things flung around, and soon I slump down in my armchair in a grump. It’s too late to do the job properly now anyway. I look at the little window of my wood burner, and see that my first log is flaming merrily. Part of the deal with being Lost-and-Founder at this place is that I get my own stove and a few logs a day. Mr Mollusc hates this, of course, but he has to lump it because that’s how it was when Lady Kraken took over the hotel, and that’s how it will always be, I guess. She says it’s to make sure the lost things are dry and ready to be collected, as good as when they were found. And it means I’m pretty cosy down here over winter, and the fire in the little window is cheery, and relaxing, and…

“Are you going to sleep there all night?” says a voice, and I start awake.

The girl is sitting on the other side of the wood burner, the woolly hat in her hands. She raises an eyebrow. I probably look ridiculous as I try to straighten my cap – the elastic has caught round my ear.

“How long have you been there?” I say, noticing that the cellar window is now tight shut.

The girl shrugs, and I get my first proper look at her. She has dark brown eyes in a light brown face, and a mass of curly hair, which is barely under control. She’s probably about the same age as me, so twelve-ish, though since my own age is pretty ishy, it’s hard to be sure. Her bright eyes are quick and amused as she watches me try to suss her out.