‘It is still my house, is it not?’ he asked in a hoarse voice. ‘And I am allowed to wander it as I wish? The ravens have not made that much of a prisoner out of me yet.’

Rosa shook her head. ‘Of course you are not a prisoner. That is not what I meant.’

‘Yet I expect you would see me in prison, if you had your way. You would condemn me for something I have not yet done. Something that I swear to you I would never do.’

His eyes were bloodshot and sunken in his face as he stared at her.

‘You have got it all wrong,’ Rosa replied. ‘I do not condemn you for what you may still do, but for what you have already done – not just once, but many times. I believe the fortune in the plum, because of what I already know to be true about you. You condemned yourself.’

‘I am no murderer,’ Eustace replied. ‘But if such a hideous thing were to happen, then it would only be because you drove me to it. Your devilish birds would have me fear for my life.’

‘I have told you before,’ Rosa said, ‘the ravens will not harm you if you do not touch me.’

‘Are you quite certain?’ Eustace asked sharply. ‘I spend more time with the ravens than you do. I have seen the way they look at me. They long for my blood, just as the real birds feast on their blood-soaked biscuits in the aviary. You’ve said before that your clockwork creatures have souls.’

Rosa was surprised that he had taken this in.

‘You’ve said that once they’re created they develop in ways you do not always anticipate. Well, it seems to me that these ravens of yours will kill me one of these days, and yet if I lift a finger to defend myself, then I am the one who is somehow at fault.’ He gave her a sullen look. ‘I have only ever wanted you to care for me. Is that too much for a husband to ask of his wife?’

Rosa shook her head. ‘That is one of the most frightening things about you, Eustace. I thought it was an act at first, but I realise now that you honestly have not the least comprehension as to how badly you have mistreated me.’

His eyes slid to her in the dark. ‘I am sorry about Cookie,’ he said.

Rosa was shocked, both by the apology itself and by the fact that he had used Cookie’s name – the first time she could ever remember hearing him do so.

‘I regret losing my temper that day,’ Eustace went on. ‘I will not say I am a perfect husband, but you cannot pretend to be the perfect wife. You tricked me into marrying you.’

‘Tricked you?’