She rested her hand on the worktop to balance herself then bent each leg in turn to put on her slippers.

‘Well,’ she said. ‘I should get on. I’m going to start upstairs.’ She hesitated. ‘That won’t disturb you, will it?’

‘No, I’ll be shut away in my study doing battle with a blank page. Though you would be a welcome distraction, I’m sure.’

‘Going into battle? Sounds messy. I hope you don’t expect me to clean up after you?’ She kicked herself for the playful tone she’d used. It was complicated enough having one employer in pursuit of her without encouraging a second.

‘No actual blood and guts to deal with thankfully.’ He leant closer to her. ‘Unless I murder the lady of the house, of course, in which case I’ll need you on hand with the bleach.’

Angie smiled despite knowing she shouldn’t. She decided she liked him, despite the flirting and the fact his mouth was stuffed full of plums. He had kind eyes, and kind eyes went a long way.

‘Angie?’

Angie jumped and looked around to see Eleanor standing in the doorway.

‘When you do the bathroom,’ she said, ‘can you make sure you give the floors a proper wash? I don’t know when you last did them but they are in dire need of attention.’

Angie’s stomach twisted. ‘Oh… I… I did them last week. Did I do them wrong—?’

‘No need to discuss it, but I’d like you to give them another going over. They’re really quite filthy.’ Then she turned on her heel and marched out of the room.

‘I’ll let you get on,’ Max said.

‘I cleaned them properly last week. I promise I did.’

‘I’m sure you did.’ He smiled again. ‘If you’re going to use her toothbrush to clean the loos it’s the green one, not the orange.’

Angie wanted to laugh, but she suspected Eleanor might be listening from the kitchen, so instead she picked up the box of cleaning products and hurried towards the stairs.

Angie started in the bathroom as she’d been told. She examined the floor when she went in. It was spotless. Nothing more sinister than a fine film of dust, but she would have expected that after a week. As she rested the box of cleaning products on the windowsill her eye was caught by the two girls walking down the lawn towards the coast path. Though she couldn’t put her finger on why, this new friendship made her nervous. She had the overwhelming urge to build a brick wall around her daughter to protect her from these people. Perhaps she was being overdramatic. Different wasn’t a bad thing. Yes, the Davenports were from another planet, but it didn’t mean they weren’t nice people. It was just there was something about the way Tamsyn spoke about them, how she looked at them, adoration in her eyes and voice, plus the fact she seemed to think the house gave her some sort of connection to Rob. It made her uneasy. He should never have told her they’d live there one day. Silly nonsense. As if they could ever have afforded a house like this on Rob’s salary. That was him, though. Always a dreamer.