‘It’s the only time Greg ever laid a finger on me in anger. The rest was all me.’ Beth rolls up her sleeve. ‘One for every time I hurt him. An eye for every eye.’ She pulls the sleeve down and looks back at the window. ‘I’m sorry, Tess.’

‘I believe you,’ Tess says. They sit in silence until the knock at the door comes.

‘I’ll go,’ Tess says. ‘No men allowed in, remember?’

Beth realizes she’s compromised their safety, Tess’s birds with broken wings. Another broken rule. Another thing to add to the list. She casts about for something, anything to draw blood, but then the door opens and Greg walks in.

Beth looks at his strange, familiar face, and feels the slap she’d landed on Luke. Greg is so handsome, she thinks, seeing him as if for the first time. Strong lines, proud jaw, erect spine. Clean hands. He is decent, holds himself with restraint. He is all the things that Rudyard Kipling said about being a man, and he is her enemy.

‘Beth! Thank fuck. Lenny? Where is he?’

‘He’s here. I just – please. Please, can we talk?’

‘I’ve nothing to say to you. You took my son away from me.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Lenny is just outside, Greg,’ Tess says, in her everything-is-going-to-be-okay voice. ‘I’ll go and get him. I promised him I’d go in goal for a bit, so we’ll be five minutes, if that’s all right? I’d like to say goodbye, if I may?’

Beth looks at Tess and finally sees her for who she is. A woman who loves too much.

‘Yes, of course. Thank you.’ Even now, here, Greg can’t help but be polite.

When the door closes, though, he turns on her. ‘Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through?’

‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Beth has to know.

‘Because you are still his mother. I didn’t want him in the newspapers. I didn’t want him being hunted.’ Greg hunches his shoulders and says, ‘You aren’t well.’

‘But you knew I’d never hurt him?’ It comes out like a question, like a prayer.

‘I didn’t. I just hoped you’d come back, hoped you’d realize that you were wrong to take him.’

‘Are you going to report me now?’ A part of her wants him to. She can’t punish herself enough. Lord knows she’s tried.

‘No. I’m going to take Lenny and go home. You’re going to the doctor to get help. Proper help.’

‘Then can I see him?’