‘I hope I can see it one day. Feel the cool water on my skin and the salt on my lips. I imagine it’s such a beautiful thing to see.’

‘You’ve never seen the sea?’

‘I’ve only seen my village, my forests, my moorland. I’ve never ventured much further, but I always dreamed of escaping. I guess they’re right when they say you should be careful what you wish for.’

Grace half smiled. There was a forlorn distance in her eyes.

‘Well…’ Alice lifted her mug, unsure how to handle Grace when she wasn’t chirpy and optimistic. ‘Here’s to new adventures?’

Grace lifted hers in response, and they both took hearty gulps.

At some point in the early hours of the morning, when the fire had died in the grate, Grace shivered. Alice budged up onto one side of the bed and invited Grace to sit by her, under the warmth of the thick duvet and furs. Grace clambered in beside her, clearly grateful for the comforting temperature. The conversation began to fade as the two girls succumbed to their mutual exhaustion. Grace’s head lolled to one side, coming to rest on Alice’s shoulder.

‘Alice,’ Grace whispered, only just audible in her sleepy voice. ‘I’m glad you’re here…’ Her breaths became deeper then, and she drifted into a peaceful sleep. Alice let out a heavy sigh, trying to ignore the little voice in her head that reminded her not to let her guard down, not to grow comfortable in this place of evil and witches who kidnapped and tortured and imprisoned. But lying there, with Grace asleep on her shoulder, she felt a warmth flow through her that had nothing to do with the layers of blankets that covered them both.

For the first time since this ordeal began, she felt content.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Jem invited Lily to sit in an armchair by the fire and he chose for himself the chair across from her. He sat with one leg underneath him and the other bent up in front of his body. He rested an arm on his knee and leant his head on the back of his hand. He suddenly looked years younger. The flickering warm light of the fire made his skin glow like the late afternoon sun that shone over the fields surrounding Alder Vale in the autumn. He looked up at her through heavy, tired lids and smirked.

‘I thought you had questions?’

Lily nodded, sat up straighter in her chair, and explained, ‘I think I need to tell you what’s happened first, and what I already know, and then I can frame my questions in that context. Does that make sense?’ The words tumbled out of her in a blur. Jem smiled and nodded.

She talked him through everything that had happened, from the moment she found the letter, to stumbling into Kelseth. ‘And then I got in that boat and started rowing, absolutely convinced that it was them that I was going to find here. I still don’t know what I was planning to do when I got to the shore, but I was so angry and scared – I still am angry and scared – that I thought I could at least try. I felt so conflicted this morning when I woke up comfortable and warm because as thankful as I was to still be alive, I knew I hadn’t found her and that she still didn’t know I was coming for her. I felt guilt like I’ve never known.’