She lay her head on her arms and sobbed. Daniel worked on the riddle of her words and saw the labour of his own hand in the hopelessness she now found herself in. How could he, so feeble that he walked the earth without leaving a print upon it, make such an impact as to cause this much pain? He had made a wrong choice at every turn; abandoning Molly, failing to come to Phyllis’s aid. His weakness all that left a mark on those he touched.

‘I even tried a brew, but it didn’t work,’ Molly said. ‘Did she put an enchantment on you, the witch-girl? To make you love her?’

She looked to him, wiping the tears from her cheeks, sniffing.

He meant to answer no, meant to tell her Sarah was not as they all thought. But the child’s whispered words still swirled around him. The evidence of the brother’s vicious temper and black heart, the demon he summoned to carry out his ill deeds, still confronting Daniel each time he closed his eyes and saw Parson Walsh’s body. And was the scar that Molly bore testament after all to Sarah using her power to move the branch and trip her?

His own words spun through his head. If I am bewitched, then let it be so.

Even when he was lost in love for her, he knew it. She had preyed upon his fragile soul, used sinister forces to conjure his affections, and he had allowed her to.

The scream came from behind, and he and Molly both jumped up. Only Annie remained oblivious, whispering and gathering a soft pile of hair at her feet.

‘You,’ Sarah yelled.

She bore down upon them, a black mass of blazing fury against the rain. Molly turned and fled, but Sarah soon pounced upon her, shook her like an animal does its prey. Molly fell to her knees.

‘Stop,’ she said, weeping. ‘Please, I’m sorry.’

‘You.’ Sarah’s voice a low growl. ‘You told Gabriel. Didn’t you?’ She grasped Molly’s hair and shook her again. ‘Didn’t you?’

Molly sobbed. ‘You took them both,’ she said. ‘You didn’t even want Gabriel, but you still bewitched him just to take him from me. I’m sorry, please don’t curse me.’

Sarah pulled Molly’s face close to her own, hissed the words. ‘You told Gabriel and he killed Seth. And John was blamed and now he is dead, do you understand? He is dead, because you told.’

Daniel reached out, to stay Sarah’s anger, to protect Molly. To grasp the meaning. John was dead, and he felt the horror that was Sarah’s, but a part of him breathed deeper, surer, because the Devil-boy could no longer reach him.