Seraphine took her seat opposite and mimicked that posture: back straight, legs together, diary held in her lap. The sparse little room contained only their two chairs, a small table in between them with a water jug, two glasses and a box of tissues, and a low cabinet with two deep drawers.

‘I started the diary for you,’ Seraphine said, holding out the book.

Bloom shook her head. ‘I don’t want to see it, Seraphine. You can talk to me about what you write, but the diary is for your own private reflections. No one should read it but you.’

‘Why?’

‘So you can be totally honest with yourself. If we know another person is going to read what we write we tend to moderate the content. For a diary like this to be of use you need to write the truth.’

Seraphine placed the diary back in her lap. This changed things. She had been planning to use the diary to show Dr Bloom just how normal she was. But if the woman was never going to read it … Seraphine couldn’t see the point of it.

‘Have you been thinking any more about your experience with Darren Shaw? Or your discussions with the police?’

Seraphine shrugged. She was confident that the police were convinced that she’d acted in self-defence. There would be no benefit in repeating her story here.

‘You heard that Mr Shaw is recovering well, I take it? How do you feel about that?’

‘Relieved, obviously.’ Seraphine knew she was supposed to feel relieved. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt him,’ she added.

Dr Bloom was silent. She stared at Seraphine with a sort of blank expression. Seraphine couldn’t work it out at all.

‘It will help my case too, the police said.’

‘Of course. Without a death, murder becomes attempted murder, manslaughter becomes grievous bodily harm.’

‘But I was only defending myself. He’s a pervert. He attacked us.’

‘And that’s exactly what that is: your defence.’

‘You don’t believe me?’

‘I believe you acted calmly in a very stressful situation. I also noted that you described the incident in a matter-of-fact way; there was no drama or emotion. But I can also see that you really don’t like it when anyone suggests that Mr Shaw is the victim.’

‘Because I was the victim. Me.’ Seraphine shuffled in her chair and looked out of the small window. ‘He was lucky I didn’t really hurt him.’

‘That’s an interesting thing to say.’

Sometimes this happened. People pulled her up on specific words or sentences. She didn’t understand why.

‘I heard that when your teacher came to your aid in the sports hall she described you as surprisingly calm,’ Dr Bloom said. ‘The police suspect this was due to shock.’

Seraphine remained silent because there was no question to answer.