‘When Monty retired, we returned to London. I never forgot Hill House, but while Monty was alive, I’d never visit. I felt it would have been a betrayal. As though my old life meant more than the life we had created together. But when he died ten years ago, I moved here. My sons had spread their wings, and I wanted to return to a familiar place. This village was once part of the Hill House Estate, and I remembered it from my other life.

‘I revisited Hill House itself just once. It was so upsetting to see the disrepair it had fallen into. It wasn’t the house I remembered at all. I decided then that I wouldn’t delve into what had happened to the Mandevilles and Hill House. Call me a sentimental old woman, but even now, I prefer to remember them as they were. I can’t bear to think of anything bad having happened to them. It was enough to know that I had returned to live close to the place I had always considered home.’

Elizabeth wiped her eyes again, and Lou decided against filling her in on any details. It would only distress her.

‘Listen to me,’ Elizabeth fussed. ‘I’ve been going on and haven’t asked you a thing about your experience. How long have you been at Hill House, Louisa? What date is it there now?

‘Christmas 1913. I first went in last week, and I’ve been in and out a few times. The time seems to move at the same pace there as it does here.’

‘You’re free to come and go across the times as you please? Oh, Louisa, you are truly blessed. When I crossed back to my own time, the door to the past closed behind me forever.’

‘But my experience is different. Whenever I step away from Hill House land, I automatically return to this time. You lived wholly in the past, coming and going from Hill House as you pleased, but always staying in the Victorian time.’

‘I suppose Hill House has its reasons for what it allows.’

‘I suppose …’

‘And are you enjoying your time there?’

‘Yes. It is wonderful.’

‘I know what you’re thinking, Louisa, I recognise that look,’ Elizabeth said. ‘You’re wondering why you have been chosen above all others. Why it is you who has been given this gift. Do you think I haven’t asked myself that question every day for the last seventy years?’ She placed her glass on the table. ‘I’ve had enough time to develop a theory, if you’d like to hear it.’

‘Please.’

‘May I ask you a question?’

Lou nodded.

‘Have you recently experienced a tragedy so great, that you feel you can’t go on living? A tragedy that has shaken you and your beliefs to the very core?’

Lou hesitated before nodding again.

Elizabeth clasped her hands. ‘I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but the day I ran away from the church hall, I considered filling my pockets with stones and wading out into the centre of the lake. Imagine a child so without hope. Hill House took me in when I needed it to. Do you see, Louisa? Hill House saved me. It engineered my arrival and my departure. I can’t explain why or how. All I know is it did. I have come to understand that the pain I suffered on my departure was the price I had to pay. I had to sacrifice something for the life that had been returned to me. That sacrifice was the loss of the best friend I ever had. But it was a price worth paying for the wonderful life that I have lived since. I married the man I loved, I travelled, I have children and grandchildren, even great-grandchildren. And I’ll spend Christmas Day with all of them tomorrow.’ Her eyes fell on the wrapped parcel on the table, then she pointed to the photographs on the mantelshelf; images of children in school uniform, babies, large family gatherings and a black and white photograph of a bride standing beside a man with a huge moustache.