She turned away from the painting now and made her way up to the roof to retrieve the flask she’d accidentally left there. It had started to snow again when she stepped outside, and the pale flakes fell all around her as the frosted turrets rose up like the spires of a fairy-tale castle. The coldness of the flask seemed to burn Beatrice’s skin more than any flame, and she quickly slipped it into the pocket of her cloak, but not before James walked out behind her, carrying a tray of violet orchids. These flowers required feeding with moonlight rather than water, and so they had created a nursery for them on the rooftop.

Beatrice did not regret asking James and his wife to stay at Half Moon House tonight – it was not as if there weren’t plenty of guest rooms – but she wished he would not stick his nose into her affairs. From the look on his face, she had a horrible feeling he was about to do so now.

‘Do you think it wise to be indulging in opium so high on an icy rooftop?’ he asked.

‘Must we do this now?’ she asked, suddenly weary. She glanced at him. ‘You are here to scold me.’

‘I thought I would urge you to reconsider one last time, before I leave.’

Beatrice had told Rosa the truth when she’d said she had no romantic feeling towards James, or anyone else, but they had become close during their travels and she would miss him when he left. He had gone away once before and it was hard not to feel a little hurt that he was doing so again, and more permanently, even though Beatrice knew she had no claim on him in that way.

‘Please,’ James said quietly. ‘Remove the plum trees from the garden.’

She made an impatient noise of dismissal. They had had the conversation – the argument – before and she was tired of it.

‘I must show the Spider Queen a wonder she has not seen before.’

‘But that’s just the problem,’ James said. ‘Whatever those trees are, they’re not a wonder. Beatrice, they were a mistake. We should never have created them—’

‘We did not create them! I did!’

‘All right,’ James replied. ‘But I showed you how to produce hybrids, so I feel responsible.’

‘You regret helping me.’

‘I do,’ he said quietly. ‘Very much.’

Beatrice felt a cold flash of resentment. James had only gone into the plum rain once, and she suspected he had only done so because he did not truly believe what they could do. She had no idea what he had seen, but after that, he had sworn never to go near the trees again.

‘I will show the Spider Queen something new,’ Beatrice repeated. ‘That is how I will win.’