I bite down hard on my lip and try to think of reasons not to stake them.

– The renovators will be in soon. They are stripping out the flats above us, Jessie. I own the building, you do know? We can put you in another flat once they are ready. All the walls are open just now. I need to find a way to tell people that we have our baby!

Eyelashes long and dark as her grandfather.

– I want my child.

My arms ache, my breasts. The baby turns her head looking for me, she can smell my milk across the room. There is only one person who she wants. If they don’t give her to me I will kill them both.

– Give her to me, now.

– It won’t be appropriate for you to hold her outside of feeding time though, Jessie.

– Oh, no?

She does not belong to him yet.

I have not taken a fee.

I take her in my arms – she smells clean – skin like velvet. She suckles like she’s done it all of her many lives. This is not the first time we have met, her and me. I settle down into the little parlour chair with wings. Elise takes a tiny hat out the drawer for the baby, booties. She has been waiting for this moment for years. It hurts her to leave the feeding to me. Run my hand over my daughter’s fuzzy dark hair. It looks like a gentle caress but if she has what I have in her blood then we will have to go as soon as she’s done feeding.

I would have to steal my own child or they would kill her and me.

– How can it happen in just a few days like that? he asks.

– It’s a blessing! Elise replies.

– Is the infant cursed?

– No!