When I went to bed that evening, I had absolutely no expectations that I would fall asleep. I’d been struggling to get any real rest since the day I discovered I was surplus to requirements at the hotel and when I did manage to nod off, my downtime was filled with odd dreams of deserts and being abandoned on unfamiliar shores.

However, the soft, deep mattress on Dolly’s spare bed and the sound of the crackling fire in the sitting room below must have worked some magic and I was surprised to see a little daylight peeping around the curtains the next time I opened my eyes.

In fact, I think I would have carried on sleeping were it not for a persistent tapping sound outside the bedroom window and the old familiar weight on my chest, which had also been present since Friday the thirteenth of September.

‘What on earth,’ I gasped, as I struggled to sit up in the bed.

The weight was even heavier than usual and as I began to move it started to purr.

‘Tiddles,’ I groaned. ‘What are you doing up here?’

The little cat was heavier than you would think at a dead weight and she was incredibly reluctant to move. I managed to carefully push her to one side without eliciting a hiss, actually, she didn’t even open her eyes so I couldn’t be sure she was even conscious, and then swung my legs out of the bed as the tapping grew louder.

Annoyed to have my first peaceful sleep in weeks ruined, I rattled the curtains along their pole and flung open the window to seek out the source of the noise.

‘Oh, fuck me!’ Were the first words I heard as I launched myself forward and with one hand caught hold of the top of the ladder I had just sent flying, with a very startled looking Beamish balanced near the top of it.

I clung to his wrist and between us we pulled the ladder back so it was resting just underneath the ledge of my window.

‘Bloody hell,’ he gasped, breathing heavily and shaking his head as he peered down at the frost-encrusted ground below. ‘I thought I was a goner there for a minute.’

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. It was all I could do to stop my heart from hammering out of my chest.

‘Good morning, Hattie,’ he said, turning his attention back to me. ‘Did I wake you?’

We both looked down at his wrist which I still had hold of.

‘You can let go now,’ he winked.

I dropped him like a hot stone and took a step back. He had regained his composure far faster than I had.