She hated Mum. Still did. Paul and Keira too. Didn’t want to think about Frank or Dom. But where was she gonna end up now, among all these poshos with their money and nice houses and good jobs? Stupid. She’d been so stupid. She was no one now.

So now she was crying, and angry with herself for it cos it made her look weak and thick, like they all thought she was. Maybe they even thought she was sorry about Paul and Mum and Keira and she wasn’t, she wasn’t. She was crying because she’d been fucking stupid. Maybe Mum’d thought about doing what Jess’d done once, but had come up against the same thing: how everyone thought you were tainted, if you were a Harper.

If she’d gone further – another town, another county – it might’ve been different. Or maybe it was like a brand you carried wherever you went, that everyone else could see.

Jess wiped her eyes. She wasn’t going anywhere anyway. No one was till this was over, if it ever was. And she couldn’t go back now. She was in it with Ellie and the rest, no matter what they thought of her. And some of them were all right. They didn’t all hate her. Maybe that’d be enough. She squeezed Milly’s hand back, tight.

The vicar was still talking. “Probably spent more time dealing with those things than with actual people, going off all this. Sounds like the creatures were still active, even after the Normans turned up. Took a long time to get on their right side.”

“That’s what Mum said,” Jess said. “She told us about it. Like for bedtime stories. About winning Their trust, being clever, making gifts to Them. Animals. People.”

“Sacrifices,” Charlotte said. “Like they wanted to do with me and Dave.” She put a hand to her mouth. “Oh fuck. Dave – Dave and his Dad – no one’s seen them, have they? I mean, if they had, we’d’ve…”

It was Ellie who finally spoke. “They lived on Church Street, didn’t they?”

Charlotte shook her head. “His Dad did. Dave’s got a flat on Smithy Lane.”

“He went home with his Dad, love,” said Milly gently. Lord Chapple of Dogdickington, Jess remembered her calling Ron Chapple; she bit her lip so she didn’t laugh. “They’d have been on Church Street.”

Charlotte looked to Ellie, eyes pleading.

Ellie shook her head. “I only found three survivors on Church Street. I’m sorry.”

Charlotte’s face crumpled. Her family gone, and now her fella too. Jess thought of taking her hand, but was afraid to. “I’m sorry,” she said at last.

Charlotte gave her a look she couldn’t read, then looked down again.

“Not even thought of him,” Charlotte said. “Not all day.”

Ellie looked at Madeleine, willing her to press on. Madeleine caught her eye and nodded.