Given what he was about to do to her, Beth looked at Bruno more closely, taking in the T-shirt clinging tightly to his narrow frame, a chain looping from the back pocket of his jeans to the belt hoop at the front. When he laughed, he looked like a goofy farm-boy, but then he’d stop abruptly, as if remembering the persona he was adopting, sweeping the long fringe out of his narrowed eyes, the cigarette held to his mouth between middle finger and thumb.

Eva was making her own silent assessment. The spatters of tomato sauce speckling his T-shirt, the reptilian eyes darting from one girl to the other in a speculative way that made her feel nervous. He kept snorting loudly, rubbing the underside of his long, thin nose with the heel of his hand. It was disgusting. She glanced at her sister whose face was blank.

‘Do you have any idea what’s going on here?’ she whispered.

Beth wouldn’t look at her. ‘You’ll see,’ she said.

One of the puppies was pissing on the floor, and Bruno swore, bending to snatch the puppy by the scruff of its neck. Holding it aloft, he showed it to Eva, saying in heavily accented English:

‘You like my little doggies? Eh?’ Then sniggered at the disdainful look she shot back, Corinne joining in the laughter.

‘You would like to ’old ’im?’ he persisted, advancing towards Eva, the pup yowling.

‘No, thank you.’ The primness of her response seemed hilarious to him.

‘Take ’im, ’e likes you,’ he persisted, so close to her now she could smell his fetid breath, the stink of his armpits. He pushed the puppy against her folded arms and Eva exploded.

‘I don’t want your fucking dog!’

Bruno held her furious gaze for a moment, then dropped the puppy on the ground. It scuttled under the sofa and hid there.

‘It’s okay,’ Corinne reassured Eva. ‘He’s just joking.’ But the mood in the room had changed.

‘Laquelle?’ Bruno asked sharply and Corinne nodded at Beth.

Eva watched uneasily as this guy with the haunted face, the druggy drawl, conducted a hushed conversation with Corinne. She didn’t understand much beyond the sense that some kind of negotiation was underway. Beyond them, Beth stood in silence, grave and wraithlike in the gloom as Bruno turned his gaze back on her. He flicked a finger impatiently.

‘Enlève ton T-shirt,’ he said.

Beth’s eyes snapped to Corinne who simply nodded at her to obey. Alarm jumped in Eva’s throat as she watched her sister shyly shedding her top.

‘Hey!’ she said, catching Beth by the arm. ‘What are you doing?’