“No. It all came to me. You should see how furious my stepmother was that I was now a rich woman. She suggested I share the bounty after all they’d done for me. The cheek of it! Granny paid for my schooling and the wicked witch made me feel quite unwelcome on the few occasions I came home.”

“Just like me and Fig,” I said, nodding in sympathy. “But what about your father?”

“Daddy? He’s not a bad sort but quite clueless about what’s going on around him. He loves his farm and his pigs and prize bulls and would never notice when the witch was horrid to me. Anyway, that’s now all in the past. I am independent and have a bright future ahead.”

She said this more to convince herself than me, I thought.

“We still haven’t found the bathroom,” I pointed out. “I don’t fancy going out into the storm to pee.”

“Well, it’s not here, is it?” Belinda sounded frustrated. “The inhabitants must have a chamber pot somewhere and then chucked it out of the window and into the sea.”

“Don’t even entertain such a disgusting thought,” I said. We were both giggling to mask our uneasiness with this situation.

We searched some more until we found a door we hadn’t noticed before, in the kitchen wall. It opened onto a flight of steps descending into darkness.

“Goodness, how scary,” Belinda said. “I wonder what can be down there. Surely not the bathroom?”

Belinda held up the candle, looking like something from a gothic novel, and we went down the steps, one at a time. I have to confess I let Belinda go first. Below was a stone basement with another large sink. The smell of fish still lingered. In one corner was a rusted tin bathtub, and in another a toilet. Goodness knows where that drained to!

“Not exactly much privacy,” I pointed out.

“Not much privacy? Is that all you can say? Georgie, it’s awful! Can you imagine coming down here in the night?” Belinda sounded horrified. “Forget what I said about furniture being the number one priority. The first task is a proper bathroom.”

“Are you sure this place is worth all the effort?” I asked. “It’s terribly remote. Would you really want to be here alone?”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “I like the idea, but . . . let’s sleep on it. I always say things look better in the morning.”

We took turns in using the facilities while the other stood guard at the top of the stairs.

“Do you think we should lock the front door, just in case?” I asked as we started to get ready for bed.

“Who is possibly going to bother us out here?” Belinda said. “But maybe you’re right. We are far from any help, aren’t we?”

She turned the big iron key in the latch. “Satisfied?” she asked. I was.