Lou took a step back. Out on the pavement, she looked through the broken gates. The day once again dawned pink behind the empty hulk of Hill House.

‘It worked, didn’t it,’ Alice said. ‘You disappeared. Hill House wants you, nobody else. Not me.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Unfinished business? Whatever it is, there’s no chance of anyone else going in.’

What unfinished business, and why would Hill House want to take her back to last night? Like a bolt of lightning, it struck her. The envelope in the nightstand. How could she have been so stupid? She couldn’t just leave it there. If it was found by the wrong person, and they handed it to George, he would crucify Elliot for speaking out against him. She couldn’t leave him to face the wrath of George. If she was found to be missing, George would waste no time in ransacking her room to find the evidence she had threatened him with. She touched her throat. It was still tender. If she went back and George caught her, he would finish the job. She had to make sure that he didn’t catch her then. She checked the clock high up on the steeple of St Mary’s. It was almost eight o’clock. ‘Meet me here this afternoon. At three o’clock,’ she said.

‘You’re coming back out?’ Alice said as though Lou was giving up her claim on a winning lottery ticket.

Of course she was coming out. She could hardly leave Dean to return to an empty house with police gloves scattered across the floor. She had to be at home to break the news of Stephen’s arrest to him and to be by Stephen’s side at the magistrate’s court. She looked into Alice’s confused eyes. It was Christmas morning, and this poor girl who was trying so hard to put on a brave face, had nothing and nobody. In leaving Hill House, Lou would make way for someone who might actually do some good and deserve her place there. ‘You want to see Edward again, don’t you?’

‘I’d die if it meant I could see him just one more time, but—’

‘My purse is in my pocket,’ Lou said. She shrugged off her parka and forced Alice to take it. ‘Put this on. Go and find an open shop and get something to eat.’

32

Christmas Eve 1913

The emotions Lou experienced as she crossed the boundary could not be separated out; wonder, excitement, fear, hope. As the night surrounded her, she watched the miraculous transition of her trainers into beautiful silk slippers. Turning her face to the sky, she let snowflakes land on her cheeks and melt on her eyelids. Seven hours would surely be enough time to see the papers into safe hands. It was the final act she could perform to try to help the Mandevilles. It might even be enough time to say some goodbyes. The thread gave a sharp tug. The world could spin for another million years, and it would still be too short a time to find the words to say goodbye to one person … Not now, Lou. Job in hand.