It’s all right for Agnes, who can just peg it and get away. All Pearl’s ever known is contained inside this house. Father and Myrtle. That’s it. All she’s got. One’s dying, and the other one hates her.

‘You wouldn’t …’ she sobs. The words don’t want to come out. ‘I never would have … But you wouldn’t … help … me.’

‘What are you on about now?’

‘Mother!’ she bursts out.

The fetid, stale air rings with her cry.

Myrtle grabs her wrist and pulls her away from the wall. ‘Don’t you dare.’

‘I only … did it because she … she promised me … She said we could try and … talk to … Mother.’

Myrtle’s face twists into something cruel. ‘And did you, Pearl? Did you and your little friend manage to call her back?’

Pearl catches her breath. She shakes her head miserably. ‘We had to do her ghosts first. Both times. She never let me.’

‘But you found the murderer, right?’

‘No … I don’t think so. She wanted to talk to some sailor.’

Myrtle scoffs. ‘Oh, I bet she did. Don’t you see? That woman is trouble. She used you, you dolt.’

It bursts upon her like Mr Collins’s powder: the same agonising flash.

Agnes only talked about her sister, her papa, and the man who gave her the ring. She brushed off Pearl’s concerns about Father tonight and got all snotty when she mentioned the killer.

Agnes was never going to help anyone. It was all lies.

At last, her weak legs give out. Myrtle catches her, lets her sob against her nightgown.

Berries. She still smells of berries and violets.

‘I told you,’ Myrtle speaks hoarsely into her ear. ‘You can’t trust no one. Got it?’

Her head hurts too much to nod.

She’s such an idiot. How could she ever think she knew better than Myrtle, strong Myrtle who lifts her up and carries her all the way to her room?

The curtains are still open from where Agnes climbed in. The carpet bag and shirt lie on the floor. Myrtle kicks them out of the way.

‘Get some sleep.’ She plonks Pearl ungracefully on the bed. ‘You’ve got more work to do tomorrow. Proper work.’

The pillow is blissfully cool against her hot face. She feels like she could sleep for years. Never venture out of this bed or her place again.

Myrtle turns her back on her and crosses the small room. For a minute Pearl thinks she’s going to close the curtains and save her from the glare of the street lamp, but she doesn’t; she picks up the pair of green glasses, which Pearl had taken off when it got dark.

‘You’ll get these back when you deserve them,’ she says.

Then she leaves Pearl all alone.

CHAPTER 28

‘Slow down, Miss Darken. Tell me again who is at risk?’