Ok, the woman says. For a moment, she seems about to say something else. But then she smiles and says, Honey, I am with you one hundred per cent, puts her earbuds in, and closes her eyes. When the drinks trolley comes around, the woman opens her eyes to order two miniature bottles of red wine, which she opens at once and pours into the same cup, almost to the brim. She thinks about double-checking that the woman has accepted Jesus Christ into her heart as her personal saviour, but by the time she works up the courage to start a new conversation, the wine is finished and the earbuds are back in place.

Wake me up for snacks, the woman says, putting on an eye mask, but on no account let anyone disturb me for anything else, and she just says, Oh, ok.

Evenings in Pastor Warren’s house, practising.

What about in the case of rape or incest?

That was the big one and Steve’s eyes were steady as he said it, locked on Rebekah’s. For a moment, Rebekah didn’t speak, and nobody breathed. Then she exhaled.

Both of those, she said, are terrible, terrible things. But 63does an innocent child deserve the death penalty because of the crimes of her father?

The two of them looked at each other. Steve had been close enough that he could reach out and touch Rebekah’s face with his hand. For a moment, he looked about to do it: to touch the faint sheen of sweat over her freckles, or tuck the loose strand of hair back behind her ear. His right hand formed a fist: clenched then unclenched. His earring glinting as it caught the light.

Does a woman deserve, he said, to be forced to carry her rapist’s baby?

The circumstances of conception may be far from ideal. But adding murder to the equation will not make it better. Two wrongs do not make a right.

You talk about rights, he said. What about women’s rights?

We totally support women’s rights, Rebekah said, still holding his gaze. The only thing we don’t support is society-sanctioned slaughter of the innocents.

Oh, come on, he said. It’s just a bundle of cells.

The miracle of two tiny cells joining, and immediately the unique and complete genetic profile is already there, the blood type determined, the eye colour, hair colour, the set of fingerprints nobody else will ever have. Technology has shown us, she said, that as little as twenty-one days after conception a heartbeat is detectable. Do we ignore this because it doesn’t suit our purposes?

Ok, he said, about to parry back again, but this time she went on.