Meredith sits forward. ‘Does my mother have something to do with this?’ she demands.

I don’t try to stop the tears spilling from my eyes. ‘What?’ I say. ‘Your mother?’ I take a quivering breath. ‘Well, I guess Sylvie did, in a way.’ Can you still hear me, Sylvie? What should I do?

‘I knew it!’ Meredith frowns. She doesn’t look scared now. ‘Tell her that by sending a kid, she has reached a new low … Why are you doing her bidding?’ she says. ‘What hold does she have over you?’

‘Sylvie didn’t send me,’ I say. ‘Actually, she didn’t want me to come.’

She stares at me, wondering whether to believe me. I can read her perfectly well, even if I don’t actually know this version of Mum.

‘I need your help,’ I say. ‘Sylvie said my mum would have landed somewhere around here –’

‘Stop!’ she says in a low voice, and looks around. ‘We cannot talk about this here. We need to get off.’ She leans over me and presses a button on a pole.

On the footpath, she opens her umbrella over us but the snow’s blowing sideways now and finds its way down my collar. My tear-damp cheeks are freezing.

‘I see you’re wearing my mother’s watch,’ she says.

‘Yes, so I know how long I’ve got to find Mum … I’ve only got twenty-two and a bit hours –’

‘I know perfectly well how it works,’ she says heavily. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Tulsi.’ How weird to be telling my name to someone who looks almost exactly like the person who gave it to me.

‘Well, Tulsi, I will not be part of this, whatever it is that you and my mother are up to.’ She pauses as someone walks past us; it looks a bit like the hoodie-wearing person from the bus. ‘Fifteen years ago, I made a vow never to have anything to do with magic, ever again.’ She unzips her handbag. ‘Here, I’ll give you some money. Go up to that corner there and catch a cab back to wherever you landed and just go home.’

‘What?!’ I say. Things feel frighteningly out of whack. ‘You have to help me. You’re more or less my mother.’

‘I’m not! I’ve never met you before.’ She presses some money into my hand. ‘Don’t let Sylvie suck you into whatever game she’s playing. And she will be playing a game, there’s no doubt.’

‘You’re not listening!’ I say. ‘This is not about Sylvie. I have to find my mum. She’s stuck here!’ I shove the money back at her. I’m feeling queasy again. Have I already lost all the energy the tree gave me? Is Meredith taking it from me?

‘How many times have you been to a parallel universe?’ she asks.

‘This is my first time.’

‘Oh!’ She’s clearly surprised. ‘How old are you?’