– The last Scottish witch pulled out from a church congregation. They tortured her and then drowned her face down in the mudflats ower in Fife. Her head is on display in St Andrews.

– That’s horrific!

– Only scientists see it.

– I’m not sure that makes it any better…

– I went to see Lilias Adie’s resting place.

Morag pulls me onto the dance floor. And then there is him. I feel a need to keep talking and watching every move without appearing to have any concern. I smile and tell her the rest of the story.

– Where is it?

– Torryburn. I went to see where she lay in the mudflats. They put witches down that way so they could not get back up again and seduce mortal men fir the devil.

– You could seduce the devil himself, Ivy Proudfoot.

She pulls the small of my back in a little closer.

Smells my hair. It is so beautiful to think of us like this, or in the bathrooms when we’ve locked ourselves in a cubicle. I spin her around. See the man behind her again. Fate has called me here. I watch him. Smile at her. Think of how to progress. I must be as clever as I can be. I will underline all of the things I need to learn. Say them in my head. Then out loud in secret. Then test myself. Plot. Plan. Train. If I do not act – then I am complicit. Who can refuse their own moral obligation when a war like this is going on?

– He’s handsome.

Morag spies a young American soldier smiling at her.

– Very.

Two of the big Edinburgh gangs file in and take their walls, away from the US soldiers and the Scottish ones. The dance floor is busy. I have to still watch the boy – he is at Cupid’s Corner buying a drink. Just one more minute like this. It feels so good to have her in my arms.

– Do you know what I heard, Ivy?

– No.

– Up and down the country witch covens are gathering en masse to spell-cast against Hitler.

– I’d like to spell-cast him with a bullet and a vat of boiling oil, some poison and a stake. Then an electrified bath for good measure.

I nod and watch the German spy skirting around the dance floor.

His eyes fall on me for a second and my blood runs cold.

The devil hides in mortal men. He does not deserve a clean death. Perhaps we should do to all the Nazis what they used to do to witches in Scotland?

Torture first.

Starve and interrogate.

Humiliate and parade for everyone to see.

Drown them all face down in the mudflats on the Firth of Forth?

Cut their heads off.

Then drop a huge slab of stone onto their back.