“I’m sure that won’t happen,” he soothed, sounding more confident than any of them felt. “Come on, there’s time to get us all a coffee before we go upstairs.”

Twenty minutes later they were taking their seats at the front of the public gallery, and as Marcy looked down into the well of the court she felt another surge of anxiety at the prospect of standing there in front of everyone with her terrible face on full display.

She took a breath and made herself think of Archie, and how awful it was going to be for him when he was brought up from the cells and seated behind the bulletproof screen. And how hard it was going to be for his mother seeing him there. Hopefully Maria wouldn’t cry out, or make any sort of fuss that would end in her being ejected from proceedings.

As though sensing her mother’s turmoil, Claudia reached for her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. A smile of gratitude flitted across Marcy’s face, making her aware of the tightness of the warped, silvery-red skin that was so unlike anyone else’s.

Claudia watched Dan entering the court below with Helen Hall. Gordon Lock the barrister was with them, a tall, imposing figure with hawkish features and thick gray hair just visible beneath his horsehair wig. He was not someone it was easy to imagine summoning forth sympathy and understanding from a jury. However, looks could be deceiving, and Helen Hall had told them that Archie was extremely fortunate to have this man on his side.

Why, she asked herself for the thousandth time, were they rooting for someone who’d caused such terrible damage to her mother? It felt wrong in so many ways—but she tried to remind herself that Archie, in his way, was as much a victim of Marcus’s as they were.

As Dan glanced up, she gave him a smile and thought of how lucky she was to have him in her life. Just please, when this was all over, don’t let Marcus do something to ruin things. He’s not going to be released, she told herself firmly. The uncle, BJ, will tie him to the arson and he’ll be remanded back into custody before he even makes it onto the street.