Her hand fell and he went by her and away into the dark of the corridor.

She said to the Scarabae loudly, ‘What will you do?’ And she was frightened, but it seemed for herself not Ruth. ‘Stephan—what will you do?’

Stephan said, ‘We must confine her. That was what was always done.’

Miranda said, Tn the attic.’

‘Locked in the attic out of harm’s way,’ said Miriam.

Sasha said, ‘For many years.’

‘You’re crazy,’ Rachaela said, only a repetition. ‘She’s just a child. A sick child. She needs help.’

‘Locked away,’ said Stephan. ‘Carlo,’ he said.

And Carlo went forward to Ruth, and as he did so he took off his jacket, and when he came to her he offered it.

But Ruth spumed the jacket, only keeping her arm firmly across her naked breasts.

Carlo put one hand on Ruth’s shoulder, arresting her.

She put up her head arrogantly, and let herself be propelled towards the doorway. And as she passed through the Scarabae, or perhaps as she saw Rachaela, Ruth smiled again. But now it was the smile of a clown, lopsided from the damage of the blow. With difficulty she enunciated: ‘You deserved it.’ And was taken away to the attic above in the dark.

❖

‘Stephan,’ she said, ‘you don’t understand.’

Stephan sat staring at the hearth, where the fire had been in winter.

Rachaela sat down facing him. ‘Stephan, what Ruth did was terrible. Can’t you see that she’s psychotic? To lock her up in your attic will solve nothing.’ Stephan watched the phantom of the fire. ‘She needs attention. She needs a hospital.’

‘Anna,’ Stephan said.

‘Anna can’t be helped. Let me help Ruth.’

‘We have our own ways.’

‘Ruth isn’t yours. She’s mine.’

‘Ruth is ours.’

The bodies lay in their bedrooms, Peter and Dorian together on one bed. Soon, when the tide turned, they would be taken to the beach. Burned. So much Stephan had told her.

‘You must listen to me, Stephan.’

‘Oh, Anna,’ he said.

Rachaela got up and went to her room.

She sat listening to the sea, trying to hear the moment when it changed.

It had happened.

Ruth would hate Adamus now. And he was finished with Ruth. So much passion between them. More than there had been between Adamus and herself.

But she must get Ruth away. Now it was possible. Only the locked attic door to prevent it.

Why? Why must she rescue Ruth?

Ruth was the demon Rachaela had always envisaged.

Better to wash her hands of Ruth and all that blood.

But something would not let her.

After all there was some bond between them. Like the umbilical cord, unsevered. No love, never that. But... something.

She could not leave Ruth to the Scarabae.

The tide, surely the tide had turned now.