Alison frowned as she stared at the text on the laptop. "Mike, this is for Your Big Wedding magazine, right?"

Mike, standing behind her and lost in thought, mumbled, "Err, yes. … Something wrong?"

"You cut and pasted it from that item for Historic Homes Quarterly, didn't you?"

"Well, bits of it, yeh. You liked that, you said so."

"So I did. Particularly that bit about the plague pit."

"And?"

"Mike, would the presence of a plague pit clinch Button House as the location for your wedding? … Well?"

"Oh? … Woops."

"Apart from that it's not too bad for a first draft." She turned to look at him, "Mike, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, you've been looking lost all morning. Where's the bright, go-ahead young man I married?"

"You forgot the 'stunningly handsome'."

"Seriously, what is the matter? That vacant look means something is bothering you."

"OK, I should have told you earlier: I've lost your watch. The strap broke last night and you gave me the watch to look after. I left it on the bathroom shelf last thing, but it's not there now. You haven't seen it, have you?"

"No, I haven't. Are you quite sure that's where you left it?"

"Yes, I'm certain, and the strap is still there. I've looked all around, in all my pockets, on the floor, all over. … Are we alone?"

Alison looked around, there was not a ghost in sight, "Yes."

"I wondered if it could be Julian, you know: mucking about?"

"No! … No, he wouldn't, not now, I think. … No! ... But I could ask them to look for it."

The Captain and Pat competed to organise the others in a methodical hunt, and Thomas made heroic use of Humphries' head to look into awkward corners, but all in vain.

Later, Lady Fanny began to reminisce: "Little things used to go missing when I was small. My governess blamed it on the 'little people', she called them 'Borrowers'."

Julian guffawed in disbelief. "The Borrowers! That nursery nonsense! Ha ha, you'll be telling me next there are Wombles in the grounds!"

"Wombles? What they?" asked Robin, showing interest for the first time.

Pat explained, "They are fictional little people, children love them. They look a bit like bears with long pointy noses, and wear clothes. Families of them live underground and come out when it's quiet to hunt for things people have left behind."

"Oh yes, them. Not here now. Left long ago," mumbled Robin.

"I've heard of The Borrowers," said Kitty. "When anything of mine went missing my sister used to say that The Borrowers had taken it. It's funny that they never took anything of hers."

Several of the others looked at each other and shook their heads sadly; Kitty's naivety regarding her sister was baffling. After that, it was tacitly accepted by most, including Alison and Mike, that The Borrowers were nothing more than a convenient fiction. However, Fanny, Mary and Robin kept quiet.

That night, when Alison came for a glass of water, she found Mary in the kitchen, looking high and low. "Alison, I'm looking for them. Could you open some cupboard doors for me?"

"Of course. Them?"

"The little people! You won't see them, of course, few ever does, but there are signs to look out for. Even little people need food. … Your watch is still gone, isn't it?"

"My watch? No, still missing. You believe in 'The Borrowers' then?"

"I know summat of them. Whether they is in the house and 'borrowed' your watch I don't know. But I'm looking for them."

Robin appeared. "Tonight I wait here. Maybe I see them."

"Robin, what do you know about 'the little people'?" asks Alison.

"They come, hide, take things, go."

"You know this? You've seen them?"

"Once. … I think."

"Why didn't you say so yesterday?"

"Missing watch proves nothing. I see Borrower: then no argument."

Alison joined Mike in bed. "Alison, I'm sorry about your watch, I can't think what I did with it."

"It's not your fault. Either a 'Borrower' took it or it'll turn up bye and bye."

"You don't seriously believe in Borrowers do you? They're a tale for children."

"Did you believe in ghosts before we came here?"

Mike yawned and then sniggered. "Hey, do you think little Borrowers might die and become teeny, tiny ghosts?" Thump! "Ow!"