The next morning the dream nudged against me and some doubt became dislodged. As we passed Gulls Cry, I felt a strange pull. I had no desire to return. But even as I told myself this, it was as if someone was beside me, shaking their head in silent warning, and somehow I knew – I knew that I must do so.

I could think of little else. Afternoon came, spilling shadow into the rooms and bringing a biting chill from the window. I hoped to make an escape at lessons, but Miss Gillies was called away on island business. Time dragged, the hands of the clock seemed weighted with lead. As I climbed the valley for the service, I felt half-ghost myself.

In church, I knelt beside Mary and then we were returning, and I began to regret what I planned. When we entered the hall I was shivering in anticipation.

Dinner passed. I put Mary to bed and then sat with Miss Gillies in idle conversation until I too climbed the stairs. In my room I waited, curtains open to a moon smudged by the glass’s condensation. I waited one hour by the clock until, finally, I returned to the corridor and to that unsteady light cast by the lamps. It was silent, the energy turned down, and tiptoeing to the balustrade, I leaned over to the pool of darkness in the hall below but the hush told me that they were all in bed.

In my stockinged feet I crept to the scullery, a lantern in one hand, and found the keys to Gulls Cry. Outside, I made my way to the path, keeping to the shadow cast by the house. On the beach I turned to look once at Iskar, but the building was in darkness. The sea lapped against the shoreline and too soon, I was standing at the door, my teeth chattering with anxiety and trying to turn the key with trembling fingers.

Inside, it was pitch-dark; decay and rot smouldered in my nostrils. My chest was tight as I put the lantern at my feet and fumbled for matches. It was deathly quiet and the strike loud from my match case, then the lamp bloomed into a globe of sulphurous light. My gaze drifted up the staircase to the corridors above. The eaves groaned and I summoned my courage and placed my hand on the banister and climbed to the first landing.

At the second set of stairs, I stopped and caught my breath. I did not like the way the lantern flung its light, creating a blinder darkness behind it. I ascended until I reached the top and went into the lumber room. This was where she had taken me in the dream and I felt in my heart that this was where I should be.