‘You knew,’ said Nell, and it was almost a relief to make sense of it. ‘You knew the shoe was here all along.’

The mark in the dust where the little plastic cylinder had lain undisturbed on the top of the stone shelf, and the corresponding mark for the shoe. Dr Bishop had left the prayer on the panel; a woman had left a used tampon and a pregnancy test. ‘You found the shoe once before, and maybe you took it away, but you made sure to put it back in place.’

‘Oh, I did more than that.’ Carolyn looked at her, her expression soft, almost pitying. ‘I saw you, you know, in the supermarket that day. I saw what you bought. Picking through supper that night for the things you can eat, discarding the things you can’t – when you daren’t take a risk, because it’s not good for baby. It wears you down, doesn’t it?’ she said. ‘The times when you’re late, five days, a week, two – but it never comes right and it’s the hope, every month, that destroys you in the end. Because no matter how careful you are, it always comes to nothing. And it’s so easy for everyone else, isn’t it? The ex-wives and the silly little schoolgirls, falling pregnant like it’s an accident, an inconvenience. We were desperate. I was desperate. So I struck a bargain too.’ She looked steadily at Nell. ‘You understand that, don’t you?’

‘But you don’t need it now, do you?’ said Evie. ‘I mean, we’re all right without it, aren’t we?’

‘I want another chance,’ said Carolyn. ‘I want another baby. I’ve been trying for . . . It worked before, and it will work again.’

‘Seriously?’ Kym couldn’t help herself. ‘That’s why you stole it? You wanted – a lucky charm? Because whatever that is, you do realise that’s not how it works, right?’

‘I know exactly how it works,’ said Carolyn. ‘Which is why we’re all going to stay here for a little while longer.’

‘I want to see Maude,’ said Nell.

‘No,’ said Carolyn.

‘Mum,’ Evie said, and she began to cry.

It seemed to Nell that the poor kid might crumple, collapse entirely. She let go of the chair, edged towards Carolyn, trying to make it look as if she was just straightening up, shifting her weight; maybe if she rushed her, knocked her off balance, made a grab for the knife . . . the electric lights above them buzzed and flickered and faded away.

‘That’s why you kept going on about the drying ground,’ said Kym. ‘You wanted to get access to the house, to the shoe.’