‘Oh.’ The kitten stirs on my lap, maybe reacting to the tension that makes my nerve endings sing, and I scratch behind her ears to soothe her back to sleep.

‘How about I get a couple of extra security cameras? Ones that I can link to your phone. And I’ll get one of those doorbells with the camera in it, too, so you don’t even have to answer the door if you don’t want to.’

It’s not as good as Rupert rushing to my defence, telling me that of course he believes me and that we’ll slay this particular dragon together, but I guess it will have to do.

Once we are home, Rupert disappears into the small spare bedroom to get some work done, despite the fact that the construction industry mostly shuts down for the last two weeks in December. I potter around downstairs, finding homes for the gifts we received, the kitten winding her way around my feet. Everything feels OK – I don’t get the feeling that someone has been in the house, and the telephone has stayed silent, although that doesn’t surprise me as Rupert is still home.

Feeling at a loose end I wander upstairs to see if Rupert wants a cup of tea. Pushing open the door to the spare room, I realize it is empty, the chair behind the small desk he’s put in there shoved back towards the wall. He said he was coming up here to work, but although there is a faint blueish glow from his laptop screen, his desk is clear of paper, an empty coffee cup the only thing on the desk besides his computer. Moving quietly, I slip behind the desk, crouching over the keyboard of his laptop. The whirling motion of his screensaver casts light across my face and I nudge the mouse. If there’s a password, I’ll leave it, I think, even though I know I could probably get past it, thanks to my years in IT. But there is no password and the screen comes to life.