Suddenly a long seam burst in a puff of red smoke.

A bird flew out.

The dress had been pregnant with the bird.

It flew straight past Anna and dipped over the heads of the old women so they cried out and called.

Rachaela had never seen the Scarabae so discomposed before.

The bird rushed from wall to wall and the women screamed shrilly, warding it off with their hands which flashed with rings.

Then the bird shot suddenly upwards. It vanished into the hole in the ceiling and the beating of its wings was gone.

‘The attic,’ said Anna, pointing up after the bird. ‘Uncle Camillo leaves the window open.’

‘Will it fly out?’ cried Unice.

‘Will it fly away?’ they asked.

‘I expect it will,’ said Anna. She looked at Rachaela. ‘Perhaps Rachaela will go up sometime today, and see.’

‘It’s bad luck, a bird in the house,’ said Unice.

Miranda said, ‘Not for sixty years.’

‘Hush,’ said Anna. The bird’s gone. Ruth. Have you chosen this one? It’s just the right size.’

‘There was a bird in it,’ said Ruth.

The panic of the old ones had not afflicted her, but she was influenced.

‘The bird has gone,’ said Anna.

‘I don’t want it now,’ said Ruth.

The old women blew towards her, statically like rags on a bush. They whispered, conceivably without words.

‘Choose another,’ said Anna.

‘But I wanted that one.’

‘Then forget the bird,’ Anna was smiling and patient.

‘No,’ said Ruth.

Anna spread her hands and waited.

They all waited on the child-woman who was their future.

Ruth stood with her head to one side.

At last she said, ‘All right, I will. This one. But the seam’s torn.’

Alice said, ‘I’ll attend to all the seams. And Cheta will clean the dress very carefully. Especially the lace. Lace is so becoming.’

Ruth said, ‘What about the veil? Will I have a veil?’

‘Yes,’ said Miriam, ‘like a bride. A beautiful red veil.’

‘And Carlo will cut red roses,’ said Miranda.

‘Such a special day,’ said Teresa.

Ruth stood at their core, like the hub of a gradually turning wheel. She had put her back to the dress. She did not look at Rachaela.

When the candles had been blown out, they retreated from the room, to which Michael and Maria would presently come to remove the selected dummy.

Outside in the corridor the cloud of old women bore Ruth away.

Later Rachaela went up to the attic.

Within, among the chests and stands, one red dress had been stranded—the dress of Alice’s mother.

She could not see the hole that led to the room below, but the window stood wide on the fierce sunlight.

Of course, they were vampires, they could not come here.

But Camillo had risen from his bed and come here and flung the window wide to attract a bird to fly into Ruth’s red betrothal dress.