JUDGE: Furthermore, I would like to state, categorically, that I have found no wrong-doing with regard to the work Eva did, funded and encouraged others to do, here in the islands. Rather, although this inquiry was called to challenge her ‘matriarchy’, what it has opened my own eyes to is the need for a thoroughgoing overhaul of the ‘patriarchy’ in all its forms, invisible though they remain to many. The illegality of the male-dominated cultural construct has been made manifest to me here, as has the danger which it poses to women and other non-human species, in the form of man-made climate change, and other avoidable catastrophes. I now believe, perhaps belatedly – and I do hope that it is not too late – that there is a strong case for challenging it, legally, in all its forms, both here and internationally.

Outside in the yard, from the screen, from the library, began the shouting and cheering, the ecstatic swearing, the hugging and kissing, the jumping up and down, the standing stock-still and staring. The Hand Bells Women’s Group from Frome, the Feminist Brass Band of Glasgow, the Edinburgh pop group V were clanging and hooting and singing. The five women from the Mirpur Khas Women’s Welfare Organisation left the chai stand they had been running all week, when not leading participants in dancing the leva after Maghrib prayers, and whirled together around their Mugarman drum, arms raised to heaven. Zoe didn’t move from her seat. Around her, people were on their feet, whooping, weeping. She tried to focus on one clear memory of her grandmother; but already the images were slipping away. The sensation of Eva’s cheek against hers. Her hair, like a cloud. She tasted salty tears in her mouth. It wasn’t any of these things. It was something else. Her way of being. Her looking after. Her love. Her love.

It was here, and it was gone.

It was real, and it was all in her head.

Zoe got to her feet. There was no going back now. She had already become what Eva intended.

Out on her island, Cwen feels the spirits of the dead stirring beneath her. Eva is among them.