She turned her head a little and she could see her mother about six feet away, shooting the large bolt at the top of the door to secure it. Confined now with the bats and the spiders and whatever the hell else might be crawling around in here, Belle felt sweat break out. Oh Christ, she wanted, needed, to get out. But she had to stay quiet, stay still. Trembling, she pressed her hands to her mouth to stifle any small shriek that might escape if anything touched her. She tried to stay calm.

They were hidden. They would be safe. She told herself that, over and over.

But she didn’t feel safe, not at all. Harlan and his cronies were at the door and that was reason enough to panic.

Then she heard it: Whack! Whack! Whack!

Down in the hall, someone was hitting the door with something heavy.

Dimly, she could see her mother’s face, frozen in fear.

Then the front door caved in.

101

‘Hey! Anybody home?’

It was Harlan’s voice, loud, drifting up from the hallway of the gatehouse.

‘Not much of a welcome, if you don’t mind my saying,’ he said, and there was a snicker of laughter.

Belle and Jill stared at each other in the half-light.

Quiet, mouthed Jill.

Belle nodded. She was bent double, sitting on her haunches. There was a fluttering murmur of leathery little wings above her head, like the dry rustling of autumn leaves or bees fanning a hive to keep it cool. She could hear the men making their way through the house, going into the sitting room, then the kitchen. Noises down there, like they were turning things over, breaking things.

Oh fuck.

But hadn’t they all, deep down, been frightened of this, prepared for something like this, since Charlie’s death? They had all been living on a knife-edge. Pretending all was well. Knowing it wasn’t. And now, here it was at last. Harlan’s reckoning.

Was Dad coming?

No. Belle had seen the answer to that in her mother’s pale, terrified face. They were on their own here. And now she could hear a heavy tread on the stairs.

The men were coming up.

Belle shrank back further, into the shadows. Held her breath. Felt sweat dripping into her eyes, smelled the odour of extreme stress oozing from her pores.

Got to hold on. Mustn’t panic.

‘They must have gone out,’ said Nipper’s harsh voice, so close by that Belle nearly shrieked.

There was a pause, then Harlan said: ‘Or Terry warned them. Somehow.’

‘Nah, Ludo dealt with him.’

It sounded like they were standing right by the bed, in the centre of the room. Two, maybe three of them.

Dealt with him? Oh Christ.