Oh God oh God oh God.

I’m on my feet in an instant and running downstairs to lock the front door, because if the door is not locked when Gram comes in then either:

a) I’ll be in trouble for not locking it when I left for school, or …

b) Gram may think I’m already back for some reason, and come looking for me.

I can see her coming up the path through the bobbled glass of the front door. She has Lady with her, which means she has finished for the day and will be home for the rest of the afternoon.

I turn the key quickly, extract it and dash upstairs again, where I kick the box – still locked shut – back under her bed, close the top cupboard door, and I’ve just managed to put the stepladder away when she comes through the front door and immediately starts coming upstairs.

She taken her coat off, but that’s it. She’s in a proper hurry.

I have no choice but to dive under Gram’s bed.

OK, yes, I do have a choice. It would involve hiding in my own room, but I can’t get there without being seen with Gram already on the stairs. Or it would involve jumping into a cupboard …

Which, now that I think about it, would have been a better idea because what if Gram has come up to get the box? It’s clearly something that’s on her mind at the moment, and if she looks under the bed she’ll …

Shh.

She’s coming in, Lady has followed her, and Lady is sniffing the carpet. I can see their legs – Gram’s and Lady’s – and Lady seems agitated, probably because she can smell that I’m in the room.

‘What’s the matter with you, Lady? You’re very sniffy today,’ says Gram.

There’s a creak, and above me the bed sags as Gram sits on it. She kicks her sensible court shoes off and then goes over to the cupboard. Next, she sits down again and puts on a pair of trainers.

Gram laughs. ‘You know, don’t you, Lady? You know this means a walk! Well, you’re going to have to be very good today, because we’re meeting someone else and I want you to let me know if you like him.’

Then she gets up, because the doorbell has rung, and she’s going downstairs.

I can hear all of this, but very muffled, from my position under the bed, and my mind is already reeling.

Gram: ‘Hello. Do come in. I’ll just get my gloves from the kitchen.’

Man’s voice: ‘Hello, Bea. Hello, Lady – nice to see you again. You wanna tickle?’

I gasp, because I have heard this voice before. I can’t place it, but I have definitely heard it before.

I squeeze out from under the bed. I need to see who it is, but I’ll have to look out of Gram’s bedroom window. I can’t risk looking down the stairs.

I hear Gram say, ‘Come on then.’

Then the front door closes.

Together, Gram and Lady walk down the front path, followed by the man, whose face I cannot see but who has short sandy hair.

Yes. It’s him.

The guy I met in the doorway of Priory View.

What the heck is he doing here? With Gram?