Her eyes are red and slightly swollen, and she’s clutching a moist tissue on her lap.

‘Come here, angel,’ Mary says and holds her arms open. ‘I’m going to take you home.’

Charlotte gets up and rushes into her mother’s embrace.

Mrs Wilkinson comes out from behind her desk and says, ‘Thank you for coming so quickly, Mrs Bateman. I didn’t want you to panic, but the poor girl is quite shaken. I thought it best she didn’t return to the classroom.’

Mary feels an uncomfortable tightness in her chest as she steps back and looks down at Charlotte. There are tears in the girl’s eyes and her breath is unsteady.

‘Is it true, Mum?’ she says.

‘Is what true, angel?’

‘That two people were killed in our house and their baby went missing. Andrea said her dad told her about it and showed her pictures on the Internet. And Lucy said that their ghosts must live in our house because people always haunt the places where they die.’

For a moment Mary doesn’t know how to respond. Her mouth goes dry and a deadbolt twists in her stomach.

She and Robert had often talked about this moment, when Charlotte would ask about her home’s dark past. But they had never got around to deciding how best to approach it.

‘It is true that the couple who used to live at Oaktree Farm died there,’ she said carefully. ‘But there are no such things as ghosts so you shouldn’t listen to what Lucy says. She’s just trying to scare you.’

‘Then why don’t you like me to go into the cellar, Mum? Andrea said that’s where the bodies were found.’

‘We’ve told you about the cellar before. It’s not safe because of all of your father’s tools and chemicals. Plus, there are rats down there.’

Mary is anxious to get away so she turns to Mrs Wilkinson and thanks her for being so considerate.

‘My husband and I will have a long talk with Charlotte over the weekend,’ she says. ‘We’ll put her young mind to rest and I’m sure she’ll be ready to return to school on Monday.’

‘I do hope so,’ Mrs Wilkinson says. She then turns to Charlotte and adds, ‘Don’t forget what I told you, Charlotte. You should never let things that happened in the past bother you now.’

On the drive home Charlotte asks lots of questions and Mary does her best to answer them. But she continues to lie about Oaktree Farm not being haunted even though she firmly believes that it is.