“What did you discover at Top Withens?” she asked Charlotte, wiping her hands on her apron, and she and Anne gathered round.

“That though Lady Hartley is adamant, I am wavering in my belief that Clifton Bradshaw is guilty of cold-blooded murder. I have no evidence for this belief other than that I sat at his table and saw him speak with what I took to be true honesty for the first time since this matter began. Lady Hartley insists otherwise, however, and she is a far more worldly person than I. Her work on behalf of the poor has taken her into circumstances so terrible that we could hardly imagine them, sheltered as we are.”

“Worldly does not always equal wise, Charlotte,” Anne said. “And you have the wisest heart I know. What you are able to divine through your feeling and intuition is almost as formidable as your mind.”

“I thought that was so, but”—Charlotte shook her head—“what do we really know of the world, Anne?”

“As much and more than any lady who rides in a carriage and lives in three houses,” Anne said. “We who see children die, wives beaten, men of God drunk and lecherous—we are not sheltered from reality, Charlotte; we are it. Lady Hartley is very admirable, I’m sure—her philanthropy is much admired in well-appointed drawing rooms—but do not doubt yourself on her account, not now when we need your mind more than ever.”

“Then tell me what you discovered when you visited the witch of the Wage of Crow Hill,” Charlotte said.

“She’s not a witch—she’s a visionary,” Anne and Emily replied in unison.

“Lizzy Goode was able to interpret the marks that Emily sketched, and she was very vexed by them,” Anne said. “She told us that it wasn’t a witch who made such a ghastly design, but that they were made by someone more like a madman: a lunatic who has twisted ancient lore and Christian beliefs to suit his own hateful vision. The inclusion of the medallion must be part of that strange mix.”

“Gracious.” Charlotte sat forward a little, her waxen complexion drawing colour from the warmth of the range.

“And what’s more, she believed that the death of the Top Withens child was not a lone offence, but that there would be more, Charlotte: that when a collection of events, or signs, as she believes the monster sees them, combines, he will strike again. Miss Goode thought the discovery of the bones, and our detection, combined with the forthcoming night of the dark moon, a phase when the moon doesn’t shine at all, might make that strike . . . imminent.”