‘History,’ I added, in agreement, but yet again I was hearing a person I loved reel off an inventory of all the things they had with no mention of me. Did it go without saying that my name was on their list, or was I of no value at all?

‘I think you need to stay there too,’ I said. ‘We need someone good on the inside. You could stay close to Ruth.’

He nodded. ‘So, if anyone asks …’

‘You can tell them we’re over,’ I said.

He had grinned at this. ‘You’re dumped, Leah Cedars,’ he told me, then he’d pushed his mouth onto mine, pulled his body on top of me again.

I wanted to give him a gift in return for the heart, leave something on his doorstep. This was the ritual of teenage crushes, something I’d missed out on. I felt a juvenile thrill at the idea of what I might do. I waited until my mother was asleep before pulling on the bobbled sweater and the wide-legged trousers, then heading out into the night.

Back at the harbour cottage, I felt like a trespasser in my own home, the steep, dark stairs creaking beneath my tread, the bedroom as smooth and still as a stage set. I pulled open the top drawer of my dresser and retrieved the phone, placing it on the windowsill and plugging it in. I watched it glow to life and beyond, through the window, I saw shadows shift along the harbour wall. I moved closer to the glass. Cats? Foxes? No. People.

I jerked backwards, flipping the phone face down to mask its light; I didn’t want to be seen. Red paint had done me no harm, but what would come next? A brick, fire, men themselves?

I took a breath and peered out again. The figures were moving away from the harbour, towards the smokehouse. Not men – three girls, one of them with blonde hair, picked out by the shine of the waning moon. The Eldest Girls were breaking their curfew, walking swiftly towards the track that led up past the East Bay. That route would take them towards the farmstead, to Viola, or else through Cable’s Wood and on to the stones. I felt a vicarious sense of triumph that they were not doing as they were told, but also I was fearful for them. Didn’t they realise they could fall from a cliff edge in the disorienting dark, or be caught as prey?

As the phone gained its charge, I brushed my hair and put on some lipstick, smudging some of the dark cherry redness onto my cheeks.