She is quiet when I finish speaking, the only sound her nails tapping on the table. ‘This is not good,’ she says eventually. ‘They think you are crazy, no?’

‘I don’t know. I overheard them talking … they mentioned postpartum psychosis. I think they think that I have it … or some sort of postpartum depression anyway, and that I am a danger to the children,’ I say, a bloom of hurt bursting in my chest. ‘I think that Tara mentioned it to Naomi, and Naomi has told Rav that she thinks there is something wrong with me.’

‘What do you think?’ she says quietly, giving in and lighting the cigarette. I open the back door pointedly but she still sits at the table. ‘What do you think is going on?’

‘I think all of this is connected to Agnes Gowdie. She was a witch, she took children, hurt them maybe. And I think she is still here.’ My hands go to my arms and I rub at the skin there. I am so cold, all the time.

‘Still here?’

‘Yes. I think she is still here, and I think she is the one who is a danger to the children, not me.’ I tell my mother about Lillian Sparks, of how she was accused of smothering her child. Of how they took her away and didn’t believe her, even though Elsie tried to tell them. ‘I found her child’s rattle in the pond; I hear her crying for her mother at night. I see Agnes in the mirror. I’ve removed it, but I don’t know if that worked, I think she’s still here. I’m going to ask Miranda about a charm to go back under the floorboards, but I need Rav to believe me. I can’t let him take them away.’ I swallow back that hard lump in my throat. ‘I don’t know what to do, Mum.’

‘Do you want to bring these children up alone?’

I shake my head. I don’t want my children to feel the way I did growing up, suffocated by a mother who couldn’t bear to be left alone. Who couldn’t bear to let go. I want things to be as they were, before – me, Rav and the children.

‘You have to show him that you aren’t crazy. You have to show him that it’s not your fault, what has happened.’