“And we shall seek out every trace of information there is,” Emily said. Charlotte was not surprised that Emily was in agreement with Anne; Emily never seemed to be afraid of anything, so certain was she of her own immortality. “We will talk to anyone we can find who was involved with Top Withens in eighteen thirty-two and listen to their stories. We can trace the many rumours about Bradshaw to their root, and sift through all the facts we can gather, seeking out the nuggets of truth that will reveal it all. For that, Charlotte, is the very business of being a detector.”

“But there is no more information!” Charlotte was frustrated with her sister’s glib assertions. “Do you propose we seek to conjure up a ghost and question it?”

“There are no ghosts; I already told you,” Emily said. “However, we may yet be able to question the dead.”

“Oh really, Emily, how so?” Charlotte asked rather shortly.

“By a close examination of the remains, drawing and annotating every detail so that we may have a record to refer to once the burial is complete.”

“Emily, you cannot mean . . .” Anne began, her eyes wide with horror. “You mean to make the bones an item of . . . reference? That is a desecration!”

“Medicine learns from the dead,” Emily said. “Think what we learnt from the single bone we discovered at Chester Grange. And what better honour could we do the child than allow their own body to shed some light on their fate? I am convinced. We must go to the schoolhouse and examine the remains with analytical care, as Mr. Goddard of the London detectors did. He was the first to note that a tiny mark on a bullet can lead back to a weapon, then to the perpetrator. We may not know what we are looking at—yet—but we must look nevertheless.”

“Then we must all go,” Charlotte said to Anne, for it seemed that the choice had been made, and she gained a little comfort from knowing that whatever happened next, it was out of her hands. “For if we don’t accompany Emily, and she discovers something important, we shall never hear the end of it.”

And yet as they headed out of the door and into the dark, Charlotte felt the danger that had been lurking since the moment they had entered Top Withens Hall draw just a little closer.

10

Anne

The night bristled with ice as they left the parsonage by the back door with Keeper at their heels, the spare key to the schoolhouse tucked into Anne’s sleeve.

“I am not sure that hound is conducive to discretion,” Charlotte whispered as Keeper immediately launched himself into a thick drift and rolled around so frantically that he created his own localised blizzard.