‘I hope that I have not come at an awkward time, Mrs Argylle.’ I could not hide the rush of emotion. My desire to speak frankly battled with the responsibility I felt for not taking gossip of Iskar outside its walls, but it seemed that William’s nature was well enough known. The maid came with the tray and we waited until she had left.

‘Please,’ she said with a smile, ‘we are friends now. Call me Bridget. I can see you are troubled.’

And all that I had recently learned about William fell from my lips.

‘You have heard it all, then, and I know if we discuss it, that I can trust you to be discreet.’

‘Of course.’

‘I was Evangeline’s friend. I knew William well and it was always my opinion he was unnatural, even before Hettie taught him what she did. I think he was one of those children one rarely sees – there was something different, something missing.’ She paused. ‘Love. He was without love of other living things. It had turned itself inside out. And instead of love there was contempt and anger. All Hettie needed to do was nudge it further in the wrong direction.’

I had not wanted to hear confirmation. I had hoped for something else, some knowledge that would have lessened or cast doubt on the charges laid against him.

‘They were both strange children,’ and I caught an inflection there that I did not like, ‘but I think William was born clever.’

‘Born clever?’

‘Some souls are made to be dark.’ She studied me with something like pity. ‘The world gives birth to both the viper and the lamb, and there are churches for each.’ Her voice was almost a whisper now.

‘And Mary? You said they were both odd. You cannot think that Mary also took part in this?’

The lines about her eyes tightened.

‘No, of that, she was never witnessed, but do you think Mary natural in other ways?’

I thought of the name she had written in the sand, the way at times I caught her gaze at some empty spot as if in recognition, but I did not want Bridget to think badly of her. ‘Yes,’ I said with vigour, ‘I do. She has a loving heart, I see it all the time. It’s just grief that has rendered her to the state she finds herself now.’ I was shocked to discover that my eyes stung.

‘I see that I have not eased your discomfort but made it worse. Hettie is gone and William lies dead. Try not to let them concern you.’

‘As to his death, I understand there are those that say he was murdered?’

She raised her eyes. ‘You can’t think that’s true?’

‘No, I understand it’s not commonly thought, but it occurred to me that his badness would be a motive.’