‘I’ve been to the stones. I’ve seen with my own eyes. I’ve seen …’ Leah doubles over, sobbing. ‘You killed him!’ She manages between shuddering breaths. ‘You killed him!’

It seems hypocritical to Viola, this expression of horror, this melodrama. She has heard Leah threaten violence, murder too – and convincingly so. Viola closes the gap between them. Why should she be the one to retreat? The uphill path is the quickest way to the Big House. Leah Cedars will just have to get out of her way.

‘That’s right,’ Viola says, walking decisively towards the sometime teacher. ‘Blame everything on me, on the Eldest Girls. Tell us we brought it all on ourselves.’

‘That’s not what I’m saying,’ Leah snaps. The need to be right sobers her. ‘You know that’s not what I’m saying. I did everything I could to help you.’

‘No, you didn’t,’ says Viola, brushing past.

Leah Cedars is selfish; Viola was never sucked in to believing otherwise. All Leah cared about was her public image and revenge for the way she’d been treated. All she wanted was Benjamin Hailey, no matter what he’d done.

‘Why lie to me?’ Leah snatches Viola’s arm, looking her up and down: the muddy boots, the pyjama trousers, the torn nylon of her mother’s coat.

‘I told you there was a body,’ says Viola. She allows herself to be smug. Leah the proud deceiver has been deceived in return. ‘That’s all. You just filled in the rest.’

‘But you said it would look bad for me.’

‘And it does.’

Leah tightens her grip. ‘How?’

‘You had it in for him. He betrayed you, everyone knows that.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Leah shakes her head. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

Viola pulls hard, trying to free her arm, and without warning Leah lets go, making Viola fly and stumble, almost fall.

‘You’re fucking mad,’ Viola hisses.

‘And you’ve sold your soul to the devil,’ says Leah calmly, in return.

Viola wants to be cool as she walks away, but Leah’s insult stings – you’ve sold your soul to the devil – it is a nettle leaf against the skin.

She could turn and defend herself, explain why he had to die, why what she and the girls did is a good thing, but Leah Cedars has already decided who Viola is. So she borrows a trick from the old woman – she plays the part that’s expected of her, she revels in it.

‘A curse on you, Leah Cedars,’ she calls over her shoulder. ‘A curse on you – and your wretched baby!’

February 2018

FEBRUARY 2018

Viola had fallen a little in love with the idea – sacrificing herself for the sake of the Eldest Girls.