‘You have turned her into the spoilt creature she is,’ Eustace returned. ‘You would have her be just like you – a coarse, common American who has no place in the English aristocracy. Mother is trying to help Ada. She even sent for a doctor to purge her bad blood with leeches. She needs to be thoroughly cleansed of all the toxic humours you have put in her. It is so bad that one blood-letting had no positive effect at all. The doctor told Mother the treatment may have to be repeated many times. I am only telling you because I thought you ought to know that Ada has been asking for you.’

‘And what did your mother tell her?’

‘The truth. That you do not love her enough to make any sacrifices at all to get her back.’

‘Curse you!’ Rosa said, each word like a lump of lead in her mouth. ‘Curse this house and your entire family. I wish I had never set eyes on you.’

Something in her tone unsettled the ravens, who shuffled around on the bannisters, their metal claws clicking over the polished wood. She walked past Eustace and went up the stairs to bed. How she loathed this place and that witch, Margaret. The thought of her touching her daughter was unbearable. Rosa must get her back somehow, she simply must. As soon as Ada was returned to her, the two of them would slip away into the night and never come back.

She needed to win that competition. Her hopes of being reunited with Esme would have to be set aside after all. Esme was gone, but Ada was living, and breathing. And not just a baby any more, but a stubborn, funny, prickly, naughty, lovely little girl who needed her. Rosa had been so confident of winning the competition previously, but the cold chill of uncertainty had crept into her ever since she saw Beatrice’s plums and what they could do. Unpleasant as the experience was, the chance to put right a mistake you had not actually made yet was precious indeed.

For the first time she allowed herself to think about what would happen if she didn’t win and the wish slipped through her fingers. Would Margaret return Ada eventually or would the weeks quietly slide into months and then years? Perhaps, in the end, the only way to get Ada back would be for Rosa simply to give Eustace what he wanted – the dreaded heir? How her skin crawled at the thought of it. Something inside her would die forever if she was forced to such a thing.