‘You watch out for him,’ she said. ‘There’s no compliment to your looks there, if you get my meaning. He has tried his hand with every woman on the island, ugly and pretty alike. Perhaps he thinks he’ll be luckier with someone like you.’ Giving me a cruel smile, she took my coat and disappeared behind the baize door.

Greer’s put-down grated and I hurried upstairs to change. As I came down afterwards, I encountered Mrs Lenister.

‘Blowy afternoon,’ she said. ‘Are you quite well?’

I sighed. ‘Quite well, thank you, but I do not seem able to please Greer today, somehow.’

‘Ah, Miss Swansome. Don’t mind her ways.’

But she could see from my expression that I did. I turned to leave and then recalled the shoes that were now moved every night.

‘Every morning I wake to find that Greer has moved my shoes and placed them oddly.’

‘Moved your shoes?’ Her eyes went a little wide. ‘She has to move them, if you don’t mind me saying, in order to clean.’

‘You misunderstand me. It happens at night,’ I said. ‘She must come while I’m asleep and place my shoes heel to the wall. Every night. I do not understand why she does this.’

Mrs Lenister opened her mouth but no words came.

‘Is it a tradition here?’

She shook her head but her skin paled. ‘No. It’s not something that we do here. Not at all.’

I felt her withdraw, a shift in her energy. ‘Excuse me,’ she said and swept past me to the hall beyond.

Mary and I were served dinner in the playroom, but my head throbbed and I left Mary to go and lie down. It was not long till I fell asleep, waking later to the weight of darkness. The fire lay low in the grate. It was bitterly cold. Chilled, I got up, tidied my hair and dress and went to the playroom.

Inside, there was whispering. I opened the door but Mary did not hear me. She was kneeling intently over some pursuit, her quiet words punctuating the silence.

I stepped softly towards her, curious to catch what she said. But the language was the unintelligible one from her nightmares and the part of me that had been sparked by interest, shrunk. When she finally became aware of me she snatched at the ground but was not quick enough to hide what she was doing. There were five pebbles laid in a circle; each had a figure drawn upon it, each with hair wrapped around it.

I was cut with dismay. Although I had suspected that she might have some understanding of the stones, it had not occurred to me that her interest had extended so much in their direction. Did she play with them in full knowledge of their meaning?