They both shot angry eyes in the direction of the little man. He gave them both a nod, approving the command. I glanced to my left, looking for the figure who had stood in the doorway but whoever had been there a few moments before had made themselves scarce.

‘Please, follow me.’

The young woman put her hand out. I reached out without a second thought and she closed her fingers and thumb around my palms as if I were a child that needed help crossing a road. She had hard skin. Callouses on her palm and real coarse whorls on her fingertips. They were working hands, rough as freshly cut timber.

I followed without another word, head down, the fight briefly gone out of me. The foreign-looking man at the table didn’t look up as we passed him. The one I was thinking of as ‘Rupert’ gave a dismissive little smile, then turned away the moment we had passed him. I sensed that we were already forgotten.

‘Get off me … get off me …!’

I hurried down the darkened corridor, my feet slipping on the greasy tiled floor. There was barely any light but the little that flickered out from the torches wielded by the big lads emitted just enough for me to get my bearings. We were heading towards the back stairs, making for the servants’ quarters adjacent to what Cordelia always called the ‘drawing room’. John was already inside and from the sound of things, he’d recovered his fight.

‘Please, gentlemen,’ said Sera, that same thick accent echoing off the walls. ‘Por favor, there is no need for violence.’ She was trying to get past the man who was standing still in the doorway, pushing at the bulk of his back. ‘Please, he is hurt, let me tend him – where can he go, señor, please, a little mercy … in the name of Our Holy Mother, he does not need to be harmed!’

She managed to wriggle past him and she dragged me after her. John was up against the far wall, holding his side, bleeding from the mouth. The one with the piggy eyes had given him a thump. Temper flashed in me, quick as a flash. I raised my head and glared at him. ‘Makes you a tough man, does it? Hitting a man fresh out of hospital when he can’t defend himself? I swear, Pike will break your jaw for this.’

He grinned at that, showing teeth stained by strong tobacco. ‘Pike? He the local hard case, is he?’