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opaque as they started from their sockets, her back pinned to the wall like she was some kind of helpless bug stuck to a dollop of sticky jam. She didn ’t know who was the more shocked; Dick Swindon, the plumber, or herself as he dropped an armful of copper pipe on the floor, the clanking and clattering of metal adding to the intrusion of her cowardly screech within the confines of the enclosed stairwell.
    “ Didn’t mean to startle you, Mrs. Noble,” the plumber told her in a slow drawl, regarding her narrowly as though she was some raving psychopath, as he shoved a finger in one ear and began wriggling it around, as though trying to dispel the buzzing sound that was still vibrating painfully in his inner ear chamber.
    “ You scared the living daylights out of me,” Meli squealed furiously, the sounds forced to emerge down her nasal passages. “How did you get in here?” Realising that it was her own fingers tightly locked around her windpipe she forced them to unclamp before they throttled her. As she dropped them to her sides, where they hung like steel girders, her lungs snatched a deep, shaky mouthful of air, sending a rush of blood upwards into her head, making her cheeks burn; but it wasn’t just the influx of oxygen that coloured her cheeks. She felt downright stupid and embarrassed by her wimpish conduct. She was aware that above her the mysterious floorboard creeker had appeared.
    “ What’s going on?” The voice asked.
    Peeling herself from the wallpaper, Meli glanced upwards and found herself looking at a younger replica of Dick: unruly mop of red hair over a winter pale complexion with a scattering of freckles.
    “ That’s Tony, my son,” Dick introduced him. “He’s come to give me a hand.”
    Feeling uncomfortable, sandwiched by the two men, one at each end of the staircase, Meli marched down the stairs, head held high as she brushed past Dick, carefully negotiating the sprawled pipes. It would be unbearable if she humiliated herself further by falling flat on her bum.
    “How did you get in?” she demanded again, swinging round to face the plumber when her feet reached safe ground. She was feeling braver by the second as her initial terror subsided, replaced by a growing sense of righteous indignation at the scare they’d given her.
    “ The door was open; we thought you’d left it that way for us. Didn’t we?” He conferred with his son, who probably nodded, but as all Meli could see of Swindon Junior were the tips of his trainers, she couldn’t be sure.
    Her eyes creased beneath lowering brows as she watched Dick hook his thumbs nonchalantly into his braces as he returned her gaze through a pair of steady grey-brown eyes. Was the man stupid? Didn ’t he have any notion that he’d scared her to within an inch of having a major coronary?
    Not wearing braces herself, Meli did the next best thing and thrust her thumbs into the front pockets of her jeans as she glared back at him. “Well, I didn’t leave it open for you. Why would I? You weren’t due here until later this morning. It would be a bit stupid of me to leave my home unlocked with no one in now, wouldn’t it?”
    One eyebrow nudged upwards a fraction, before quickly dropping back into place when he saw a fresh wave of fury cross her face. She bit her tongue. She had just declared herself stupid in his eyes, as without doubt the door must have been left open. She resisted the urge to stamp her feet before hurling herself onto the floor and throwing a paddy on the carpet. Under the intensity of her scrutiny he lowered his eyes and studied the lengths of copper pipes around his feet. He was embarrassed, she realised. Embarrassed by her behaviour, not by his own actions. The man was intolerable.
    “ Is it okay to carry on now? We’ve got a lot to get through today, haven’t we Tony?” His polite tone made the hairs on her back bristle as his eyes slid upwards and leveled with hers again. Meli restrained her fingers, which