The crack of a stick made Steph spin round. She half expected to see someone walking along behind her, but there didn’t seem to be anyone there. She completed a 360-degree turn, scanning the forest for any sign of movement. One tree blurred into another as she completed a second turn. No one and nothing was there. All at once, she felt unexpectedly afraid.

The need to get out of the forest and back onto the main part of the resort meant Steph having to abandon her idea of finding Harry’s lodge. She picked up the pace, calculating that retracing her steps would take significantly longer than trusting her sense of direction and heading further round in a circle towards the resort. She estimated she had almost completed a semicircle around Dominic and Owen’s houses.

Another crack of a branch and a rustle of the leaves had Steph looking back over her shoulder again. The forest seemed even darker now and she wondered if another bout of rain was about to hit. A movement in her peripheral vision had Steph whirling round. A dark shape darted behind a tree. Her breath caught in her throat, memories of the intruder from the night before orbiting to the fore. There was another noise, indistinct, coming from the same direction and she thought she saw something move again.

Steph spun on her heel. She could feel panic taking over, forcing her to break into a run. She didn’t know where she was going but she was running as fast as she could away from whatever it was. Then there came a thudding noise that sounded like feet hammering the earth. She threw a look over her shoulder as she continued to run.

From out of the foliage sprang a deer, followed by another and then another. They galloped across the path, disappearing for a few moments, before appearing again as they wove their way in and out of the trees.

‘Deer!’ cried Steph in relief. ‘It’s only deer.’ She slowed her pace and as she turned to see where she was going she ran straight into someone. This time she let out an ear-piercing scream as two hands grabbed her shoulders.

‘It’s OK. Steph! It’s me, Harry.’

Steph took a moment to compute the words and to register the voice. She gave in to the struggle and focused on the face before her. ‘Oh, God. I mean, thank God.’

Harry’s grip loosened on her arms. ‘What was all that about?’

Steph took a deep breath and slowly got her breathing under control. ‘I was being silly,’ she said, feeling embarrassed now. ‘I heard something behind me back there. I thought someone was following me. Turned out to be deer.’

‘Ah, the deer. Yes, we’ve got quite a lot of them in the forest. I thought you knew that?’ He smiled with amusement.