Feebly, I try to bat him away and pull my legs in tight against my body, trying to curl into a ball, but he’s persistent and I’m too weak to protest, so I let him wrench off my shoes and remove my socks. He hauls me into a sitting position and pulls my sweaters off. They come away as if he’s peeling off a layer of skin. The cold air stings my bare body and I shake violently, but Liam drapes the blanket around my shoulders.

I curl up on the rug once more and feel Liam wrap his naked body around mine. He pulls the blanket over both of us and though something is nagging at me, I can’t chase the thought, because within seconds I’m falling into the deepest, darkest sleep I’ve ever known.

Chapter Twenty-One

A bang wakes me. My eyes fly open. It takes me a moment to realise where I am – on the floor in the living room. The fire has died out. It’s chilly and the light is muted and purplish. What time is it? How long have we been asleep?

Liam is still out cold. His arm is heavy around my waist and he’s breathing deeply. There’s another bang, followed by a creak. My heart leaps as though I’ve been shocked with an electric paddle. I stop breathing, my eyes flying to the kitchen door. Is someone inside the cottage?

But then there’s another thud and a blast of cold air and I realise the noise is just the back door, banging in the wind. I force my legs, which are stiff as planks and aching, to move and I roll like an elderly patient out from under Liam’s arm and onto my knees. I’m naked and when I stand up, throwing off the blanket, goose bumps cover my skin. I scamper, clutching my arms around myself, to the wooden chest beneath the window and pull out a woollen blanket that I saw in there the other day. Wrapping it around myself I shuffle towards the kitchen.

I find the back door open and flapping in a gusty wind. Did we leave it like that? In our exhaustion, did we forget to close it? I remember now: that’s the thought that I was trying to chase before I fell asleep. We should have barricaded the doors before we did anything. Liam must have forgotten after he went out to get the axe. We’re lucky the man didn’t come looking for us.