‘Don’t you . . .’ And she looked at them again, both of them so alike, now she thought about it, skinny and dark, and – starved, somehow. Both of them pitying her. ‘Get away from me, both of you – just—’

‘Evie, it’s all right—’

But whatever it was Kym wanted to say, Evie didn’t want to hear it. She turned on her heel and ran.

Chapter 23

23

‘Maude.’

‘What?’

Nell clearly didn’t want to say it, whatever it was. She was moving round the room, making sure the windows were opened as wide as possible; fussing. ‘I need to take the shoe back, sweetheart.’

‘What are you going to do with it?’ Maude was sitting up in bed, the duvet jumbled around her feet, a plate with the remains of a slice of Carolyn’s banana bread on her lap.

‘Nothing. Put it somewhere safe; just in case.’

‘In case of what?’

‘Do you have it?’

‘Safe where?’

‘Please, Maude.’ Nell looked dreadful, grey, ill. ‘I thought – I think the best thing to do is put it back where it belongs.’

‘In the wall?’

‘You could help. We could do it together.’

Strike a bargain. Maude wondered what it was that Nell was after.

‘It’s under the bed.’ Let her get down on her knees and look for it herself. ‘And I’d like my phone back.’

‘In a bit. OK?’ Nell found the box. ‘I meant it,’ she said, ‘about helping.’

Maude shrugged. ‘Not bothered,’ she said.

‘Are you all right, sweetheart? Only – if you were worried about the other night—’

‘It was an accident.’ Maude interrupted her. ‘You said it was an accident.’

‘No. I meant – before. The noises.’

Another shrug.

‘If you were worried about them, you could tell me.’

‘I’m not worried. They’re—’ Maude stopped. She looked guilty.

‘They’re what?’

‘Nothing.’ She glanced up at the witch marks on the beam. ‘I’m not bothered, Nell, not by . . . You don’t have to keep me entertained.’ Maude chose her words with care. ‘I’m not a baby.’

There was a pause.

‘Fine,’ said Nell as she got to her feet. ‘I’ll deal with this and then we’ll think about lunch?’

‘I’m not hungry,’ said Maude, picking up her cake. ‘I’ll tell you when I am.’

*

Nell climbed carefully down the attic ladder, one-handed, her back aching. She couldn’t wait any longer; she certainly couldn’t wait for Maude to change her mind. She’d put the shoe back, and let the agency know when they dropped off the keys, let them worry about it.

She paused on the landing, listening for signs of life. A sign, one way or the other that she was making the right decision.

Nothing.