‘You leave him alone,’ I shouted, though there were more tremble than rage in my voice. ‘This is my friend’s house. I don’t know what you want but she’ll have your guts for garters if you hurt my John. He’s just out of hospital. You should be ashamed.’

Then there were hands on me. Before I could get another word out he’d rubbed his hands right down my sides and inside the coat, down both sides of my legs and even over my backside. I was too shocked to say a word, just froze up like I was a nipper and Dad would smack my legs for being cheeky. I just went small and scared and then I was being hauled up from the ground. My head was proper spinning and I had this horrible feeling I was going to wet myself and then he had my arm up my back just like the other bugger had done to John. There was a shove in my back and I heard the sound of John growling and his feet scraping over the gravel as he was dragged up and hauled after me.

‘Say something then,’ I whispered, teeth chattering, as I tottered forward. ‘If you’re burglars there’s nowt worth having, I swear. She’s got a fancy place in London, her husband’s a politician and he’s rich as they come, but this place is bust books and some old furniture and a few keepsakes. It’s half falling down, you’ve just made a mistake, just go … I swear. I’m only here to clean …’

He yanked at my arms. Hauled me backwards and spun me to face him. That was the first time I got a proper look at him. He was well over six feet tall. You could tell he was tanned, even in the dark. Brown eyes, big unlined forehead with a neat side-parting in his black hair. He had one of those Roman noses: a big shark’s fin in the centre of his face, but he was handsome, sure enough. A film star look about him when he smiled, showing off such perfect white teeth that it seemed like the moon had come out from behind a cloud. It made it all the way to his eyes, too – a proper smile, not a nasty one, not a false little grin the way you’d think a snake might as it tightened around something fluffy. No, he was smiling at me like he found something really funny.

‘You’re the cleaner?’ he asked, and he narrowed one eye and scrunched up his cheek as he said it. ‘Mary and Joseph, you had me worried.’