Her face was stretched with such glittering hatred that my breath caught in my throat. I had not thought it possible to communicate such loathing. I could not move.

She smiled and leaned close. ‘You will regret this,’ she whispered and held up one of the dolls I had taken. ‘You think you can protect yourself by taking the whistle and the figures of you and Mary?’

But in spite of all that I had so recently been told, my fear had reached such a point that no more could be created, and she no longer scared me.

‘Get your hands off me.’ My voice slurred.

She put her lips nearly to mine. ‘Go home. Go back. You’re not wanted here. Why do you interfere?’

And in spite of all that I knew of her, and all the warnings, a madness of rage gripped me, shaking my tongue loose. ‘You are the one that interferes. You have tried to frighten me from the first. I saw you coming down from the Fiaclach. Hettie learned it from you, didn’t she? It was not her that brought her spells and tricks to Skelthsea, it was you. You made the dolls. You summoned Hettie to push me today. You think I don’t know that you are like her?’

Her eyes widened a little. ‘You know nothing.’

‘You put those dolls and pebbles in my room to intimidate me.’ My head swam. I could not stop. ‘And Mary. You mean her harm. Miss Gillies is too blind to see it, but I see it. Did you kill William? Why?’ I hissed.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘You don’t know anything. And Mary,’ she sneered. ‘Are you sure she is what you think she is? You’re a fool.’ She pushed the doll into my face. ‘You stupid bitch. You think you know it all. Well, if you know what’s good for you, you should leave and take the idiot child with you.’

‘You’re wicked, Greer. You called her back to do your bidding.’

Her breath rasped and the candle flickered.

‘You’re a sick creature,’ I said.

She lashed out and squeezed my wrist so tight in her fingers that I gasped in pain. ‘You know nothing, Elspeth. Nothing. You know nothing and you understand nothing. But know this: I shall make you pay. You will regret this. Forever.’

When I woke again, it was morning. I wondered if I had dreamed the confrontation with Greer but there was a bracelet of redness about my wrist that said otherwise. Although I was stiff and the pain worse, I insisted on getting up.

I sat at my mirror and traced a cut on my neck and wondered what Mrs Lenister would say if she knew about my exchange with Greer. All the time, I fell between anger and dismay. Anger at Greer and dismay that I had fuelled it.