Alice tucked her chin into her collar and wrapped her arms around her body. The brave face she had been putting on slipped inside her hoody.

Tread carefully; you don’t want to scare her off. ‘Is it just the staff you miss?’ Lou asked.

‘What do you mean?’ Alice looked at Lou from beneath her eyebrows.

‘I know Edward misses you. He told me.’

A proper smile lit Alice’s face, her cheeks bloomed with colour. For the first time, Lou got a glimpse of the pretty young girl Edward had fallen in love with.

‘I didn’t mean for it to happen,’ Alice said quietly. ‘I did like I was told and turned away from members of the family if I met them when I was cleaning. But Edward – Mr Edward – he had this way of making me see him even when I tried not to. There was a day, in the library. I was dusting, and he came in to look for a book. He asked me if I liked reading. When I said I did, he made me take a book of poems. He told me to read it and tell him what I thought next time I saw him. Every night, no matter how tired I was, I read a page. I didn’t understand it all, but I liked the words. Whenever I saw him after that, he’d talk to me about the poems, about what they meant and …’ She forced her hands into her single pocket. ‘It’s so stupid. I mean, how can I feel … he hasn’t even kissed me … how’s it possible to fall …’

It’s easy, Lou wanted to say. ‘Have you tried to go back recently?’

‘Only every day.’

‘Try again now.’

‘There’s no point.’

‘Humour me. Please.’

With a sigh, Alice walked to the gates. It wasn’t until her foot was hovering over the boundary that Lou realised the significance of what she was trying to make her do. If Alice disappeared then, she was in, which, in turn, meant that Lou was out. She watched Alice take a step through the gates and stand on the drive and continued to watch as Alice stepped back on to the pavement. With a shrug that said, I told you so, Alice said, ‘Now you try.’

‘It won’t work. I did something.’ Hill House wouldn’t want her back. In attacking George Caxton, she had surely severed all ties. But what if? A glimmer of hope rose in her as she remembered Bertie’s insistence that her doll remain in the house.

‘How can you just stand there when there’s a chance you can go back,’ Alice said. ‘I’d be in there like a shot.’

She was talking more sense than Lou had a right to hear. Lou looked towards Hill House. The first glimpse of daylight dawned beyond the abandoned building. She took a deep breath and walked to the gates. Here goes nothing.

She crossed the boundary. Night fell. Snow swirled around her. Lady Mandeville’s Chinese lanterns glowed in the darkness. Chauffeurs huddled beside the cars lined up on the driveway, the tips of their cigarettes glowing orange. And, at the end of the drive, the lights of Hill House blazed in the dark. It was Christmas Eve again!