I could hear my iPhone ringing out, but where was I, and what time of night was this?

I pulled myself up in bed to peer into the dark. I was back at the White House in my childhood bedroom. The phone was calling out from my study next door. I jumped out from under the duvet to answer it.

Gulping back loud sobs, the caller informed me it was 04:00am, and that she had been banging on all the house doors for about 2 hours in an attempt to attract our attention.

I didn’t trust this person at all. She wouldn’t tell me why she was so distressed, but she clearly wanted me to feel sorry for her. What she didn’t know was that from the bedroom window I could make out her figure, with a bike, under the lavender tree at the main gate. Was this a trap?

As dawn broke a fuller picture began to emerge. I could now see that my caller was holding a prisoner! I sprang into action to rescue the hostage. It was my friend LM.