‘They . . . he . . . said you have to have something precious belonging to someone to give you the Power. But he . . .’ She could not bring herself to say the name. ‘What will he do to me?’ she asked at last. ‘Will he make the Jab Molassi come for me? He said if I ever told anyone . . .’ She did not finish the sentence.

‘But you have not told anyone,’ said Luciana, ‘and you don’t need to anyway, because you see I know what’s happened. Listen, Marnie, there’s no spell that can’t be broken if you know the way to do it. And I do know. I know a lot about magic – much more than Kenneth. Come, you will see . . . but you have to trust me. Can you do that?’

Slowly the child nodded.

Earlier that day Luciana had gone into the little town and withdrawn a large sum of money from the bank in cash. This she now collected from her room.

‘I am going as usual to look at the sea,’ she said. ‘And then we might watch the pigs being fed together. Perhaps you would like to go your usual way and I will go mine, and no one will notice either of us.’ They looked at each other in perfect understanding.

When it became known that Luciana had found the diamond heart somewhere in the garden, the general feeling of relief was enormous, though the lady-from-Purley thought the whole thing was extremely fishy. If people expected her to swallow a fairy tale like that, they had picked the wrong woman. She had always thought there was something sinister about Luciana. She had said so to Reg countless times.

Dr Henry found his patient improved in the evening, though apart from terrifying dreams she could not remember the last few days at all. The doctor said she could get up soon.

It was announced that Colin and Patsy had decided to cut their Caribbean holiday short after Luciana had had a long – and from his point of view very unpleasant – talk with Colin. As soon as Patsy was well enough, they intended to fly to the States, drop Marnie with her father, who had agreed to have her back, and then fly on to England.

Marnie paid a final visit to Luciana’s bungalow.

‘I’m going away,’ she said, leaning against Luciana’s chair. ‘I’m going back to my dad.’

‘I shall be going away shortly, too.’

‘When will you be going and where will you go to?’

‘I don’t know exactly when, Marnie, but I think it will be soon, and it won’t be anywhere I’ve ever been before.’

‘How do you know that you’ll like it, then?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Luciana. ‘That is a bit of a worry, but perhaps it will be a great adventure and I’ve always liked that; perhaps it will be the greatest adventure I’ve ever had.’