Ben took a long, slow breath. The ice water in his veins began to grow hot as volcanic lava. ‘Where is she?’

Stuart said, ‘At this moment she’s on her way to my home, in the capable hands of two of my employees whom I had stationed at your cottage in your absence, awaiting your return from wherever it is you’ve been gallivanting off to. I understand she’s a little bruised, having put up quite a spirited fight. But otherwise unharmed. For the moment.’

‘If you hurt her, this will go badly for you.’

‘As if it wasn’t going to already, had I gone along with your plan? You must think I’m an idiot, if you expected me to believe I’d walk away unscathed from our so-called business meeting. So here are the new deal terms. If you prefer not to see Miss Kirk hacked up into dog meat, I suggest you get yourself over here as fast as you can.’

‘I know where to find you.’

‘Good. I don’t think I need to specify that you come alone, because now you really are alone. Then you can deliver me the merchandise. Whereupon you get your lady friend back, and we shake hands like gentlemen and carry on our separate ways. Agreed?’

‘Doesn’t sound as though I have much of a choice.’

‘None whatsoever, Mr Hope. Now I really think you ought to get on your way. I’m not the most patient man, and I’ve already waited far too long to get what’s mine.’

Chapter 50

As a child, Ben had been haunted by a nightmare that visited him often, always the same. In the dream he found himself trapped in an empty house, whose dark and menacing corridors he wandered alone, lost and frightened. The house had many doors, but every time he came to a door in the hope that behind it was a way out of his prison, he was too afraid to open it in case of some unimaginable terror lurking there. One by one, bit by bit, every possible escape route was closed off to him, until none remained and he knew that he was doomed to remain locked in there for ever with the monsters from the encroaching darkness. But dreams being dreams, just as all seemed lost Ben had always woken up and found himself mercifully transported back to the sanctuary of his bedroom, shaken but safe.