“Tabby!” Anne said, pulling her off Charlotte once she realised Emily wasn’t going to. “There is no devil in Charlotte or in any of us. We are all quite well. What is it that ails you so? Do you recognise this motif?”

“I know enough to know that no good can come of that devilment,” Tabby said, lifting her apron to her mouth. “Get it out! Get it out right this instant—do you hear me? None of you is too big to feel the back of my hand.”

Before Anne could react, Tabby elbowed them out of the way, and with far more strength than Anne would have imagined, the old woman scooped three large stones into her apron. At once Charlotte and Emily followed suit and so did Anne, taking as many as she could and returning at once with the others to gather the last few. Following Tabby’s lead, they carried the stones a hundred yards or so up the icy track, dumping them on the edge of the moor.

Only when every single one of the stones had been deposited did Tabby strip off her apron, laying it over the pile. Then, with her face set with anger, she smartly clipped each one of them about the ear.

“Ouch!” Anne said, rubbing the side of her head.

“Such fools you are,” Tabby said. “Such dim-witted fools, the whole lot of you. And you, God-fearing children of a parson and all! Do you, all three, believe in God?”

“Of course,” Anne said at once.

“Yes,” Charlotte replied.

“Almost certainly,” Emily added.

“Then if you believe there is a God in heaven, why don’t you believe that there is also a devil in hell, and just as the Lord wants to save your soul, so the devil wants to do his best to steal it? You can’t have one without the other, children. This you should surely know.”

“We are truly sorry,” Anne said, rather hesitantly reaching for Tabby’s hands. “We had no idea what we were constructing, only that it might help us find out more of what happened at Top Withens Hall.”

“Top Withens?” Tabby shuddered. “I told you—I said Clifton Bradshaw sold his soul to the devil, and you thought I was a superstitious old woman. Well, look—there’s your proof in that pile of rocks. That seals it. It does.”

“Tabby, what does it seal?” Anne did her best to soothe Tabby, whom she couldn’t ever recall seeing so agitated. “Why don’t we return to the warmth of the house, and you can explain to us what you understood, for we could fathom nothing?”

“You may not step foot back in that house until I’ve cleaned out the filth you brought in,” Tabby said, shaking herself loose from Anne.

“It is clean, Tabby,” Emily said. “I helped you clean it just this morning.”