‘No. She is not.’

‘And Evie will need someone to stick by her for a bit,’ said Nell.

‘I know,’ said Kym, ‘I’m on it.’

‘Right.’ Nell pushed the door open. ‘I’ll see you later.’

Kym hovered for a moment. ‘You did your best for Maude, you know,’ she said, ‘under the circumstances.’

‘I think my husband would disagree, but thanks.’

They were none of them out of the woods yet. But they could fix that, if they tried, and she wanted to. She would do anything to make it right.

‘Give her my love when you see her.’

‘I will.’

*

The house was empty. It smelt of beeswax polish and lavender. Nell dropped her bag and her keys on the kitchen counter, the bowl of sea glass still sat on the window ledge. She should go through it soon, she thought, decide which pieces to keep. It occurred to her that she might make something for Evie, a pendant perhaps; something for Kym too.

She climbed up the little ladder into the attic. They weren’t sure when they’d be able to leave, but Chris had already made a start on Maude’s packing, and the room was tidier now, orderly; lonely. A suitcase lay open on the bed and Nell spent a few minutes putting away the last of Maude’s clothes. The books she was done with, her collection of cheap tinny jewellery, and a handful of postcards, plus a few of the quartz pebbles she was so fond of. She closed the case and picked up a single discarded shoe, a red trainer.

She went around the room closing all the windows, before going back downstairs into the bedroom.

The panel lay flush against the wall, and Nell tried very hard not to think about what lay behind it; what she had put there. Looking down, she was almost surprised to see she was still holding the trainer, the right one, still missing its twin. The left one was on the stone shelf, behind the panel alongside the little leather shoe – both smeared with blood, Maude’s blood, that had been unavoidable, although Nell had done her best to be calm, to set her intention before sealing them up.

Striking her bargain.

There was time to change her mind, to take it back, but she didn’t move.

She would do anything to make it right; to give them the life they deserved.

She thought for a moment, then opened a drawer, burying the remaining shoe among her T-shirts and sweaters.

She would hang on to it, for a little while.

For luck.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements