Felicite still clutched Mary, a hand on each of the child’s shoulders. She hurried her across the hall, not giving her the chance to recover. Alongside, Cool had the basement door already open. Mary was gasping, finding it difficult to breathe, when they got to the bottom of the stairs.

She stood there, trembling from the cold wetness but still, she told herself, not from fear. She felt, instead, bewilderment and she did her best to hide that too, not wanting the woman who had hit her to misunderstand: not wanting to give her any satisfaction.

It was a huge room extending the length and width of the house, which was in effect a lid put over the entire original German bunker. Its metre-thick concrete, concealed now behind lighter wood panelling than that in the upstairs hall, totally silenced the outside tempest. More important, it contained any sound from what now regularly occurred inside, making its remoteness from neighbours unnecessary. The floor was thickly carpeted, too, except for the very centre where there was a cleared wooden circle, for dancing. The ceiling was entirely glassed. There were lounging divans around three walls. Dominating the fourth was a huge television or movie screen. On either side there were five separate doors. All were closed. Two were solid, their only break an eye-level sliding metal viewing strip. Both were shuttered. In the furthest corner was an array of music-playing equipment, incongruously surrounded by disco and strobe lights. It was very warm – almost too hot – and there was a cloying, perfumed smell.

Mary shivered, for the first time positively uncertain. Quickly she said: ‘I’m cold. My clothes are wet.’