He looked as if he was going to say something else, but then changed his mind. ‘OK. It’s your call,’ he said gently. ‘I’m not in the business of putting pressure on anyone. We can talk tomorrow. At least allow me that.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ Steph gathered up her bag. ‘I’m going to turn in now.’

‘Let me walk you back to your lodge.’ Harry rose at the same time as her.

‘Thank you.’

They walked in silence back to Steph’s lodge, where she found herself once again standing on the doorstep with Harry, wishing she didn’t have to leave him. She hoped he wouldn’t try to persuade her to change her mind, as she knew she wouldn’t put up much of a protest.

Harry leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Sleep well,’ he said and then turned and walked away without looking back.

Steph let herself into her lodge. ‘Bollocks,’ she groaned as she locked the door behind her. Tonight had not ended how she had planned it to at all. She contemplated making herself a cup of tea but decided against it. The easiest way to get over the disappointment of tonight would be to go to sleep. She washed the make-up from her face and stripped off, slipping into a T-shirt and fresh underwear.

She was just drifting off to sleep when a scraping noise jolted her back into consciousness. It was a brief sound but it had been out of the ordinary and enough to startle her. Steph lay very still in her bed, concentrating on listening for any other sound.

There was nothing and she was just beginning to think she had imagined it, or even dreamt it, when she thought she heard a gentle creak, almost like floorboards. Was it just the building softly groaning in the night or was someone actually inside the lodge?

She mentally replayed her movements before she’d come to bed. She had definitely locked the front door and, although she hadn’t checked the patio doors at the rear, she knew she hadn’t opened them. She chided herself at overreacting. This was a wooden lodge in the middle of a forest, there were bound to be all sorts of noises.

Steph slipped out of bed and stepped out into the hallway. The night-light was on, casting a soft yellow glow down the passageway towards the living area. She padded along the tiled floor and into the kitchen.

A movement in her peripheral vision made Steph look round just as a large, dark figure lunged towards her from the shadows.

She didn’t have time to move out of the way, to run or even to scream. An instinctive reflex had her half-turning away from the intruder, her hands went over her head to offer protection and she hunched forward. The next thing she felt was the impact on her back which sent her off-balance, making her stumble forward.