Shuffling backwards, I pulled the ladder down until its feet met the carpet and the ladder was fully extended. I gave it a push, checking it was secure. If the ladder was too wobbly and I lost my balance and fell, it would be a disaster. Visions of Mother returning to find me in a heap on the floor, my body twisted like a discarded, damaged doll, flickered in my mind’s eye. But if I fell, I fell. I had to know more. I had to go up there.

A steely kind of determination settled itself in my mind, and I ascended the ladder with slow, careful movements. Each rung creaked underfoot and gave way a little, but not much.

I reached the top of the ladder and stared into a pit of shadows. Biting my lip, I braced myself, fearful of creepy-crawlies that might be lurking on the walls, and felt along the wall for a light switch. There was no point going inside if I couldn’t see anything. My fingers touched string and I tugged. Something clicked and a naked bulb came on, emitting a low buzz. The bulb was weak but it did the job. I glanced around the attic, my eyes greedy. Attic floors could be unstable, I knew, so I gingerly stepped onto the floorboard in front of the ladder, relieved to feel nothing give way, the wood cool beneath my bare foot.

An unpleasant smell circled me. It was an ancient, mouldy, moth-eaten kind of smell that made me wrinkle up my nose and breathe through my mouth as I stared in horror at the masses of cobwebs that hung between the wooden rafters like Gothic, lace drapes. The roof was not far above my head; if I stretched my arms up, my fingers would touch those grotesque cobwebs, no doubt inviting a horde of hungry spiders to crawl down my arms and underneath my dress where they would feast upon my skin with their tiny, needle-sharp fangs. Big, evil spiders like Deadly.

Ugh. I shivered and turned my attention to the contents of the attic, reminded of poor Sara Crewe in A Little Princess who was forced by Miss Minchin to sleep in the attic all on her own.

I counted eight cardboard boxes, one filthy mattress and two leather trunks. There was a lot of stuff to search. It was going to take me all day, maybe longer, to go through everything. But I didn’t have all day. I didn’t even have two hours.