‘After that, we slept together and made sure no one in the village found out. In the spring I would go to work in the town and we began to save so that one day we might live there. A year ago, I found I was pregnant. We took the paper with us to a lawyer and asked if we could marry. He said that if the letter was authentic, he could see no reason why not.

‘I gave birth to a little girl. We couldn’t bring her home so we arranged that she would board at the Schmidts’. She’s nine months old and we plan to move away from here in the spring, start afresh with our baby. I’ve told no one this but you. Don’t stay. This village is a place of ghosts, it will suck the life from you. Tomorrow,’ Flora whispered, ‘you will be gone. Think of that.’

It was late afternoon and already the night was falling in on them when the cabinet maker emerged from his bed. Edith pointed at his boots then at her own homemade shoes and held up her hands, questioningly.

‘How should I know?’ said her father.

Edith felt like screaming. If she had a voice she would scream so loudly the windows would shatter and he would be putting his hands over his ears.

‘Those shoes will do nicely,’ he said, putting on his coat. She pulled at him and he turned on her and pushed her away. ‘The butcher took them as a precaution. He doesn’t want you running off. I want you married, and when you’re married, he will buy you a new pair of boots.’

If I had the strength, thought Edith, I’d throw you out of this house. I would make you crawl on your hands and knees to the butcher and bring my boots back.

The cuckoo clock whirred into life. The dancing couple came out silently, the woodman chopped silently, but there was no cuckoo to mark the passing hour.

Concluding it was broken, the cabinet maker opened the little door and stuck his finger in. ‘It’s gone,’ he said. ‘The cuckoo’s gone. It must’ve flown away.’

Edith spent the evening trying to improve the homemade shoes. Then she burst into silent laughter and went into her grandmother’s bedroom. For warmth, she’d brought the pig in as well as the hens. Edith opened Grandmother’s chest and, under layers of clothes, embroidered tablecloths, nightgowns and blouses, she found what she was looking for: her grandmother’s boots.