The devil’s daughter and his grandchild, passing through, like all the other people who have gone before us and who will come after. Mr Udnam has put lamps in. Gas is out. He has ripped the building apart and put most of it back together. Soon tenants will come back. It was far better for nobody to be here, so Elise could go into hiding. Then bit by bit she began to go out until everyone around them has just seen Hope as her own. He has left a few of the walls open though. They will need to be closed up. Perhaps they are still open for the plumbing; they have that all over the New Town.

I go in and click the door shut.

The apartment is silent.

Lay gifts and messages by Elise, kiss her cheek, take Hope and lay the child heavy onto me. We have a fancy stroller for her; she walks most of the time but it’s handy for busy streets. Elise insists I bump her down the stairs when we go out. Keep my coat on and settle our girl. I bump her down the stairs so carefully she doesn’t feel a thing. I will let Elise rest awhile.

Hope wakes up on the High Street.

I offer her my hand to squeeze.

The child wraps her fist around it.

It’s all she needs to descend to the underworld. One hand to hold onto like a balloon back in the real world. It can lift her back out again should she need it to.

We turn right onto Victoria Street.

Pass the cheesemonger, the tailor’s, the lace petticoats and linen, wooden brushes and down toward Bow Well – the smell is rank.

I need to be somewhere old.

The city has stood her ground so long and today I need it to hold me. Hope can no doubt sense all the executions that happened at Bow Well. They even hung the hangman in the end. Locals lynched a captain. A hundred Covenanters had their spines snapped right there. Maggie Dickson got hung then woke up in her death carriage! They hung her for having a baby without a father. It is how it is. Men decide what goes in women’s bodies and what is taken out. How and when and in which way those things occur.

At least the law couldn’t hang Maggie Dickson twice.

I want to be in the most haunted place that will serve me above ground level.

The spirits will protect Hope and me a wee while.

We duck into the White Hart.

Nod at the barman.