“She spent very little time with our children, very little time with their care in mind,” said Douglas. “She was unresponsive, un-naturally gloomy; she took to her bed as often as possible, not like a normal mother at all. She shunned society altogether, mine and that of our children and her wider family. She closed down, often refusing to get dressed at all.”

“And what was the effect on the children of this abnormal behaviour?”

“They were very ill-affected by it.” His voice was flat. “My daughter was extremely shy, my eldest became a cripple, and, although my youngest was very young when she left, since she snatched him he has developed an extremely nervous disposition. I see no reason to believe she has changed her ways. Our medic called it Mother’s Blues. He said she’d likely snap out of it.”

“And did she?”

“She took off.”

“Leaving her children.”

“Yes.”

“A crippled son, a daughter – and Ian.”

“Yes.”

“Did she attempt to see any of her children for the years she was gone?”

“She did not.”

Joan looked along the line. Her statue-sister had not moved an inch from her position. Eyes front, mouth shut, shoulders back.

Smithson said, “How did the crippling of your eldest son come about?”

“He fell down the stairs when he was four years old.”

“These were stairs at the home of Lady George Campbell. Was he left to go up unaccompanied?”

“I believe so.”

“Had he not a nanny?”

“She was with my daughter. Enid was supposed to be with him.”

“But she wasn’t.”

“No.”

“And what was her response to this tragedy? I expect, as any normal mother would be, she was distraught and felt terribly guilty.”

“She was distraught, all right. I don’t know about guilt. She got it into her head that it was something to do with sin. She’d dabbled in unusual spiritual practices when she was young, before I’d met her, but I thought she’d given them up. When Fagus fell she took up with the Christian Scientists.”

“And they are?”

“A sect, from America. A cult who think illness is a sin which can only be cured by prayer. They’ve been over here preaching their nonsense for a while, so I understand. The main thing is that they don’t believe in medicine. I discovered my former wife was throwing our son’s prescriptions away and tying him to a chair. She believed her prayers would bring back his sight, the strength in his limbs—” He held the rail.

“You stopped her?”

“I stopped her immediately, of course. He made some recovery quite quickly. It was a while ago. He can walk steadily enough, but his eyesight is not recovered.”

“He’s blind.”

“Yes.”

“And is your former wife still a member of the Christian Scientists?”

“I believe she is.”

They’d had her followed.