‘Care to elucidate?’

‘To study history is to see Darwinism in action: evolution, survival. The brain is the human species’ single greatest weapon; we are unique in the animal kingdom in that we can not just revisit the past, but learn from it and shape our future behaviours too.’

‘So you believe it allows the ennoblement of the human race?’

‘I do. If we learn from the mistakes of our forebears, we can save ourselves. The mistakes of the father need not be the path for his son. Or daughter.’

Charlotte’s eyes flashed up sharply, his words searing her skin; they felt targeted and sharp. Mistakes of the father? That wasn’t coincidence. What did he know? Did he know? He was looking straight at her, pity in his eyes.

He knew. He’d heard somehow. The Cambridge grapevine. The press.

She looked away, feeling a white-hot spike of rage. He thought she was some tragic fuck-up because of what her father had done? He thought she could somehow be ‘saved’?

Fuck him. She didn’t need his pity. She didn’t need his patronizing academic theories about how they’d all be okay if they just read some fucking books. She felt her cheeks redden and she knew it was all there on her face for him to read – anger, shame, that for some reason she couldn’t hide from him.

She knocked back the brandy in one gulp, wincing as it stung the back of her throat, feeling it burn all the way down to her stomach. That burn, then the numbing . . . it was so familiar, so welcome. She closed her eyes. The room felt hot suddenly. Airless. That roaring fire in this tiny room – it wasn’t like there was snow on the damned ground. It was October. She pulled on the neck of her jumper, trying to cool herself, to breathe.

Nathan was watching her but his guard had dropped too and his hand was now gripping his thigh. Looking tense, primed somehow, he absently swatted Miss Miggins onto the ground. She gave a mewl in protest, slinking over to Doc Hall and interweaving herself sulkily between his legs.

‘. . . I’ll pass that sentiment on to my colleagues, Mr Marling. Many of them are quite certain we are doom—’

A bell started ringing suddenly – loud and insistent – continuously, throughout the college. It made them all jump and Charlotte realized that in fact she had, that she was actually standing. Her body was rigid, as though the alarm had leapt from her own body, out into the world. She had to get out of here.

‘Drat that wretched alarm system,’ Doc Hall muttered, reluctantly putting down his brandy and pushing himself out of the chair again. ‘Okay, we’ll have to pick this up next time. File out to the quad. I need to put Miss Miggins back in her carrying crate. The one time I don’t bother will be the one time there is actually a fire—’