He got up to look out of the window, gazing in the direction where they had seen the yellow eyes earlier, eyes too far apart to belong to a cat. He couldn’t see anything, and yet the noises continued, sounding like footsteps muffled by the grass, heavy footsteps, coming from the very bottom of the valley. Franck refused to be frightened. He was not going to spend three weeks here; he would never be able to stand it for that long; he was not interested in this type of holiday. Tomorrow morning, he would find a town where there were people and shops to buy the papers and, more importantly, a bistro where he could sit and connect to the Wi-Fi … That was all he wanted: to find somewhere civilised. Perhaps he would even make up an excuse to go back to Paris, unless a genuine reason forced him to return anyway. Liem and Travis had not taken holiday; they would be sleeping peacefully in an air-conditioned room in Paris, with no creaking or other noises. He was the only one panicking in the darkness in the middle of nowhere. Standing there on high alert, surrounded by strange noises and scared stiff, mirrored what was going on in his professional life. He was a producer whose last two films had been flops; TV networks and banks no longer trusted him, and vultures were circling around him – ambitious young men ready to swoop and buy up his film library, knowing very well that he needed the money …

Now there were not merely noises, but actual movements below, countless heavy footsteps thudding in all directions. He didn’t turn on his headlamp for fear of showing he was there, but it was clear that all kinds of night creatures were moving around. It had to be animals and not humans, large animals pawing the ground or scratching at the earth. He thought about waking Lise so she could hear it. It was an impressive sound, of wild animals emerging from the woods to fight or gather together. He already knew that when he told her about this tomorrow, she would not believe him. But if he woke her up right now, she might panic and then they would both be frightened, and that would be worse.