Keeping Alice in one arm and draped over my lap, I use my other arm, and the one foot that is still working, to slide backwards and away from the cliff and closer to help. Beyond the point where the grass ends and the world drops, the sea is endlessly before me, dazzling and interminable and blue. I cannot let myself calculate how long it will take me to get Alice to the house this way. I have barely moved us a couple metres, and want to cry in relief when there is a crashing noise that makes me look over my shoulder to see Eliza burst through the gorse.

She falls on her knees beside us, weeping. ‘Thank God you’ve found her.’ She is touching Alice’s hair.

‘I can’t wake her,’ I say. ‘I can’t see any cuts other than on her feet, but she’s struggling with her breathing and she has several new bruises. She’s very pale. She’s too cold.’

Eliza shifts to look. ‘Oh my God.’

‘I can’t walk, Eliza – I’ve done something – I don’t know what – my foot’s dangling, so I can’t help.’

She puts a hand on my shoulder. ‘You’re in pain – I’m sorry. I’ve called 999 but it’s going to take them a while. The house is so remote. Then they’ll have to find us out here.’

What I say next is against my every impulse, because I never want to let Alice go. But I do say it. ‘Carry her. Run. If the paramedics aren’t in sight, then throw her in the car and drive to the nearest hospital or doctor’s surgery.’

Eliza nods. ‘Okay. I’ll make sure to send them for you.’ She bends to take Alice, her face so close I worry that Alice’s breathing will be impeded. With that thought, something catches in the corner of my foggy brain. It cuts through my terror for Alice and the pain that is throbbing through the place above my heel so acutely it seems to pierce my skull too. Exhaustion made me fail to see it earlier.

‘Eliza?’ My left hand is ready to protect Alice.

Eliza straightens and looks up, a question on her face.

‘How did you know Jane was smothered?’ My right hand is ready to move.

The skin around Eliza’s eyes blanches. ‘What?’

‘You couldn’t have known that.’ I am bracing myself, my stomach muscles tightening, preparing to balance from this sitting position if I need to strike at Eliza.

‘I don’t understand. I don’t know what you mean.’ But I can see from the way she is biting her lip that she does.

She moves to take Alice from my lap and I try to push her away, but my movements are feeble and I am finding it more difficult than I imagined to keep myself from tipping.