“How could it possibly be, Sis? The timing is perfect for it to have been St Stephen’s.” We sat at the wooden dining table that had been with the Cheung family since they left Wong Nai Chung Village decades ago. Because Colville had left his old table in the steward’s flat for Cheung to use, Cheung had given this one to Emily and Tak-Wing to return to its old position under the bare, yellow light bulb which surely must have been changed from time to time, though it seemed to me that it had been hanging there for a hundred years.

“Please don’t speak as though I was visited by a holy person.” Her body weighed heavily on the ancient kitchen chair. She leaned back, trying to get comfortable. The chair creaked.

“I’m sorry … I …” I struggled for language. I wanted to help her, but I didn’t have a clue what to say.

“Christ, Violet,” she said. “I don’t how to talk about it either. But it wasn’t Saint Stephen, or good King Wenceslas either, I promise you that.” She tried to get up. “Do you want some tea?”

“I’ll get it.” Someone had made tea that morning. It was cold now, but still drinkable. I poured us each a cup. “I just don’t see how you can be so sure.”

“I was attacked by only one of them. That vicious one that murders people in the Supreme Court.”

“Just one?”

“Isn’t one enough?”

“That came out wrong. I didn’t mean …” I took a sip of the tea. It was unpleasantly bitter.

“Never mind. I know what you mean.”

“I wish I could have protected you.”

“Sometimes I feel guilty. Most of the nurses there were raped by at least a dozen, and several were murdered.” She shifted again on the flimsy chair, but could not get comfortable. Her face was flushed and hot.

“Guilty? You shouldn’t feel guilty.”

“He took me into a separate room. And left me there afterwards. I hid beneath a big oak desk until the rampage was over.”

“It would be tempting fate to call that luck.”

“It was a roll of the dice. But the baby is Tak-Wing’s. I just know it is. He’s kicking. Want to feel?”

I came around the table and put my hand on her stomach. “He’s moving!”

She smiled weakly. “A new life, Violet. It must count for something good.”