She never equated Simon with this diabolical practice. In a story, bodysnatching is horridly entertaining, but in real life … She can only hope this is an exaggeration Simon employed to quench the boy’s thirst for gruesome tales.

‘Papa didn’t have a fresh supply of bodies for his anatomy classes, like students do today. He said everyone was forced to do it. He looked so sad when he told me. Poor Papa. He hated the time he spent away studying. That’s why he didn’t want me to learn to be a doctor too.’

Well, that was possibly one reason. Heaven knew the young Simon who went off to Scotland was a very different creature to the one who returned to find his entire family either dead or dying of cholera.

‘He’s scared,’ Cedric repeats. ‘Because he dug up dead people. So he doesn’t want to believe they could come back and haunt him.’

How did this sweet, perceptive boy come from Constance? Agnes had been so afraid that the apple would not fall far from the tree. But Constance’s vindictiveness has not been passed on. Her son has inherited nothing except her taste for the macabre.

‘You are very wise, you know, Ced.’

He grins. ‘I know. I’ll probably be prime minister one day.’

She plants her lips on the top of his sandy head, wishing she could give him that chance.

CHAPTER 13

Pearl cries deep into her pillow. She’s exhausted and would rather save her breath, but she can’t seem to help the sobs. Myrtle’s words go round in her head. You’re a spirit medium. What did you expect?

She only knows what she didn’t expect. She never bargained on feeling this ill. Being in pain every day is wearing her down, like the seams on the easy chair in the parlour. And what has it got her? She still hasn’t met her mother, still hasn’t been able to discover who is killing people around Bath.

They call what she has a gift, but Pearl doesn’t want it any more. She doesn’t want it at all.

Beneath her quiet snuffles, she can hear Father in his room, fighting for breath. Shame fills her to the brim. How dare she lie here thinking these selfish thoughts? Using the Power was never about her. It was about making money, so that Myrtle could concentrate on her Mesmerism and heal Father.

All her family want her to do is sit still in a dark room and give up control. It isn’t so much to ask.

Except it is.

Some days it feels as if it’s sapping her very soul.