Almost immediately, she straightens up. ‘What do you think you’re doing, Holly?’

She has used my real name for the first time. I do not like my name in her voice. My answer is to bend forwards, using as much of my upper body as I can to shield Alice.

‘Give her to me.’ Eliza’s jaw is clenched. ‘If you make me wrestle you for her, all three of us might end up going over. It will be your fault if something happens to her.’

I gather Alice in more tightly, trying to bundle her into a concentrated mass. ‘It’s the judgement of Solomon. I would never do anything to put her in danger. You’re not her real mother.’

Her hand flies to her mouth. ‘Oh, Holly. Oh no.’ She looks so deeply horrified and shocked. ‘You think Alice is yours.’

Alice makes a small whimper. A strand of copper hair has stuck to her cheek. I smooth it away. ‘I know she is. You know it too.’

And then the world lurches. Or rather, I do, because Eliza digs a hand into each of my shoulders, pushing my upper body from my child’s with every atom of force she has and not stopping until my head smashes into the edge of a rock and I am flat on my back. I am too dazed to prevent Eliza from snatching up Alice, who is sprawled across my chest.

Eliza stands, holding Alice against her as if she were burping a baby, and looks down at me. ‘She’s not yours.’

It is too hard to focus on the two of them. My head is too heavy to raise from the grass. I try to make my brain tell my body to move, but all of the signals seem to have short-circuited. My eyes drift away. They drift up, to the sky. The sky is full of stars, even though it is bleached blue. The sun is a huge orange ball in a child’s picture. I decide that staying here is the best thing I can do. I am too tired. I cannot fight any more. And if Alice isn’t mine, what is there left to fight for? Now, I will let the grass grow above me. I will let the soil swallow me. I will become part of the huge burial ground that is the earth. The plague pit is here too. It is everywhere. It has been waiting to pull me in. I am finally ready to let it.

The back of my head is sticky and wet as it rolls to the side, where I can see Eliza. Tenderly, she puts Alice down, then tears off the grey sweatshirt she has tied around her own waist, which she makes a pillow of and places beneath Alice’s floppy head. Alice is so, so far away. Our time together was too short, but I am ready to let go, at last.