‘Can you think of a reason you’d stick one in a shoe, though?’

Mrs Agar frowned. ‘I’ve no idea,’ she said. The Lit and Phil hated not having an answer, Kym had noticed. The volunteers seemed to take a dead end in any kind of research as some sort of personal affront. ‘Is this about the shoe your gran was looking at?’

‘Yes. There’s an old pin stuck in the seam, properly wedged in, you know? On purpose.’

Mrs Agar nodded thoughtfully. ‘Well, he’s not the only former occupant of the yard, is he? Dr Bishop. We could get the newspaper archives out, if you like,’ she went on. ‘See who else used to live in Elder House.’ She glanced at Kym shrewdly. ‘I assume that’s the main focus of this – homework?’

‘That would be great,’ said Kym, ‘thanks.’

‘There’s the transcript of the parish records too. And a couple of local histories. I’ll let you get on while I go and have a rummage around in the collection. Come and get me if anyone comes in.’

‘Great.’ Kym looked down at the table again. ‘Thanks.’

*

‘Right. Well. When I was a little girl, I had a wart on my hand, here.’ Carolyn held her hand out, palm up and pointed to the base of her thumb.

‘Ew.’

‘I know. Pretty hideous. So, my mum got some desperatesmelling ointment from Boots and she dabbed it on twice a day.’

‘And?’ said Maude.

‘And nothing. I still had a wart, and my hand smelt funny. So after a while, my mum decided that the ointment wasn’t working, or it wasn’t working fast enough, so she – she took me to Auntie Ida and she charmed my wart away. That is – she said she did.’

‘What did she do?’

‘Oh, I don’t remember, I was very young. She lived in a council house on St Mary’s Crescent and I all I can really remember is that it was very warm – she had a coal fire blazing away – and it was dark, because she had the curtains closed in the middle of the day. She held my hand and she – she said a spell, I suppose. She just recited this rhyme, and I can’t remember it, so don’t ask – but she said it three times. I remember that.’

‘And it worked?’

‘Something did.’ She smiled at Maude. ‘Maybe it was both, belt and braces.’

Maude picked up the snapshot, peering at it. ‘Wow,’ she said.

*

They worked for a couple of hours, using the census as a starting point, then the parish records, and finally the old bound copies of the Gazette.

‘Right,’ said Kym, ‘what have we got?’