‘There’s no door that ever existed that can just vanish. We opened it to get here. We can open it to get back.’

‘But the tunnels, the fire—’

‘Fire’s don’t burn forever, girl. They get put out. I’m going back, back to my babies. They need me.’

‘Mama …’

Mary got the look.

‘There’s no way I’m walking for two days in the wrong direction, no roads, no tracks, no transport, just to talk to some crazy witch with a crazy name. The way out is back the way we came in, am I right, ladies?’

The three other women were close enough to overhear, not that Mama was trying to be quiet.

‘We should go and see,’ said Luiza. ‘We need to be there in case the door only opens at low tide, or at the same time every day.’

‘Perhaps it will not open again for a hundred years,’ said Stanislav as he passed by. Mama drew herself up, ready for an argument, but the man didn’t wait and went off towards the river.

‘What if he’s right?’ asked Mary, watching him go. ‘The rules are different here.’

‘We don’t belong! There’s nothing here for us, girl, and the sooner we get away, the better.’ Mama’s hands were on her hips. She wasn’t going to back down.

But Mary was struck by a thought: what if Mama was wrong, and the wolfman right? What did that mean for her? There was nothing waiting for her in London, save her probation officer. Here, she could be whatever she wanted to be. For a moment, she felt giddy with unfettered possibilities.

‘Mary?’

She was aware she’d taken a step back, away from the others.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘What if the door won’t open? What do we do then? We can’t just stay here, can we?’

She knew that Mama was used to getting her own way, but it was different this time. Bending Nicholls to her will had been easy. Trying to force a, a what? A whole world to do her bidding? Could she do that?

‘I’m not spending a second here that I don’t have to,’ said Mama, ‘and you’re coming with me, girl, to keep you out of trouble.’

‘I’m not in trouble.’ Mary took another step back. ‘I’m not in trouble here.’

‘Every moment you stay, you get into trouble with the folks back home. You’ve got meetings of all sorts you’ve got to attend, and don’t pretend you haven’t. Oh, you know what I’m talking about. They’re going to throw your sorry backside in prison if we don’t find a way to leave right now.’

She felt the rush, the flow of blood and passion from her heart to her head. Everything she’d been taught about controlling the Red Queen was forgotten.