‘What?’ asked Chris, meeting Nell’s gaze. ‘What have I done now?’

‘Nothing,’ said Nell, turning her attention back to the window, ‘but you can tell she’s just spoiling for a fight, can’t you?’

‘Well, what am I supposed to do when she’s being such a – brat?’

Just take a breath, Nell thought, just listen to her. ‘Oh,’ she said, the blonde woman had reappeared and was walking up the steps, a determined expression on her face as she headed straight for Elder House. ‘I think we have a visitor.’

She could hear them, talking by the door downstairs. She’d sent Chris to deal with the woman, and now she sat on the bed, listening to the rise and fall of their voices, running her hand over the soft blue and white quilt. Her limbs were heavy, she was tempted to kick off her shoes and lie down, curl up and close her eyes, to leave the house to Chris and Maude as she slept.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, once they settled in.

The woman’s voice was rapid and determined, Chris’s responses, deeper, more considered, and gradually his voice came to dominate the exchange. After a while they said their goodbyes and Nell heard the door close.

She stood up and went to the window again, just in time to catch a final glimpse of the woman walking down the yard, upright, brisk.

‘Nell!’ Chris called up the stairs. ‘I just need to move the car.’

‘OK.’

She heard him go into the kitchen, then emerge again. As he left the house, he slammed the front door behind him.

The floorboards on the landing shifted and sighed.

‘Maude?’

But there was no answer, evidently she was yet to be forgiven. She thought again about the online posting for the house. There had been no reviews, she remembered. No user comments. The owners must be new to the holiday-let business. Maybe that was why the place felt so . . .

Expectant.

Maude passed along the landing again; her footfalls muted by the carpet but still managing somehow to signal her discontent. Maybe she should have a word.

*

She had assumed that Maude would take the back bedroom, but when she opened the door, it was empty. ‘Maude? Hello?’ She waited for an answer, as if Maude might be hiding some-where. It was only when she went back onto the landing that she noticed the steps, the wooden ladder that seemed to be fixed permanently in place, leading up to a hatch-door and the attic.

*

‘I thought I’d lost you,’ Nell said, climbing the last few rungs.

‘I’m exploring,’ Maude said, ‘I mean, if that’s all right.’ She’d retrieved her bags from the hall and was bent over her rucksack, fiddling with the straps. Nell wasn’t sure, but she thought she might have been crying.