There was in the air a sentience that had not been there earlier. My eyes fixed on the drawer; even closed, the dolls’ presence was diffused in the room and I could not quell the rising panic. I sat for a minute and tried to contain my trepidation, then I stepped into the corridor to see if someone lingered, but it was hushed and hung with the emptiness of early morning. So I returned to my room and lay watching the flickering shadows and listening to the sound of sea and wind, and in spite of all my resolve not to be afraid, fear cut deeper into my bones.

23

It was a few days until I was able to leave Iskar in search of the relief of my friend’s company.

‘I thought that you would come. Hettie’s body turning up like that is a dreadful thing. Poor Miss Gillies must feel it terribly,’ Bridget squeezed my hand, ‘but I think it’s worse for you.’

I was grateful for her sympathy. I opened my mouth to mention the dolls but held back. Would she have laughed? She would have seen my discomfort immediately and there was a little voice that told me she might think it had been Mary who placed them; I did not want Bridget to think ill of her.

‘The house has been sombre since we learned what happened to Hettie,’ I said.

‘Unchristian as it sounds, don’t you think it’s something of a blessing that she will not be able to ruin another child? But Mary …’ She paused. ‘I had wondered if such a dramatic thing might cause her to speak.’

‘She has not.’ My eyes roved the cheerful walls, the rise and fall of the dog’s ribs by the fire. How much easier, I thought, would my job have been had I nannied a child in surroundings such as these, in a place where nothing unaccountable could happen, a place I could not imagine steeped in shadows and where dolls could not disarm me.

‘She will not be missed,’ Bridget said.

‘I hear there was at least one who might,’ I ventured.

She put her head to one side in question.

‘Paterson claims to have had a relationship of some sort with her. Is it true or a boast?’

She laughed. ‘Him. That is true, but how deep his feelings ran, who can say? He is a womanizer to the marrow. It was very well known. I was surprised when Evangeline kept Hettie on after the affair was so much discussed. Such a bad influence.’

I thought about Paterson and Hettie. They made a pretty coupling.

I’m assuming he’s already tried his hardest to tempt you, Elspeth?’

‘He has. I do not like him at all.’