His hand started shaking then and he let go of my wrist. I told him that I did know and that I was grateful. This seemed to calm him. He ate his breakfast while I went outside and sat on the wall. I wanted to get away from him and his words. I wanted to hear my own thoughts. He talks about the vicar wanting to control me but Sarge can be just as bad. As I sat there I thought about Isobel, her pale face and her smile, such a kind smile it was and she’d directed it at me. No one’s ever looked at me that way before. I made a little wish then to the dead mother in the desert that Isobel would come here again, that Sarge hadn’t scared her off with his ranting at her father. Then I jumped down off the wall and went inside to find Sarge standing at the front door with a hammer and a bag of nails.

Three new bolts had appeared on the door. One at the top, one in the middle and another at the bottom. As Sarge stood back to admire his handiwork I asked why we needed new locks when we had a perfectly decent key lock. He nodded his head then and did this funny expression, like he was half excited, half disgusted. ‘It’s to keep them out,’ he said. And he pointed at the door with the hammer. ‘Now they’ve made their intentions clear, we have to be vigilant. They can get to us when we least expect it but we’ll be ready for them.’

I didn’t know who he was talking about. Surely not the vicar. I tried to imagine that posh, skinny fella breaking into our house and the thought made me giggle. Then I heard Sarge yell.

‘What’s so funny?’

I realized, too late, that I’d laughed out loud.

‘Nothing, Sarge,’ I said, straightening my face. ‘Nothing at all.’

‘You think our security is a laughing matter?’ he said, coming at me with bulging eyes. ‘Do you?’

I shook my head and stepped backwards. My mouth was dry with fear.

‘Do you know what happened to soldiers who didn’t watch their backs in Iraq?’ he said, clenching the hammer in his fists. ‘They ended up being fed to the fucking goats.’

He stared at me without blinking and I stared back. I didn’t want to show him that I was scared. After a couple of minutes he dropped the hammer on to the floor with a clatter then turned and walked away. I could hear him muttering as he went.

I stood for a moment to gather myself then I felt a weird pain in my stomach. It felt like someone was twisting my insides. I ran to the bog and sat there for a while thinking that my bowels must need to empty but nothing happened so I stood up. But when I went to pull up my knickers I got the shock of my life. There were bloodstains all over them, deep-red blotches.