‘I’ll be up in a minute.’ I smile up at him as he leaves, and then wander through into the kitchen, happy to be back in my own home. The chimney is silent, not a single scratching noise since I got home.

I pour myself a cold glass of water and take my medication, my feet seeming to move of their own accord towards the pantry. I never told Rav about the silver rattle, and I find it stuffed where I hid it, still wrapped in a clean tea towel. I unwrap it carefully, my heart starting to thump hard in my chest. The cool silver feels familiar under my fingertips, but when I shake it gently there is no sound. There is no ring of a bell, no dull thud of movement inside. It is silent. I rewrap it and carefully place it back in its hiding place before heading back into the hallway. At the foot of the stairs the mirror hangs in its original position, the glass clear and the frame gleaming. Rav must have rehung it, and I’m sure the cleaning is Avó’s handiwork. I step closer, peering into the glass, waiting for her to appear, but there is nothing. The staircase is empty, there is no breath on my neck. Goosebumps prickle on my arms and I look down at the new ring on my finger, the pearl a misty white under the yellow warmth of the overhead kitchen light, imagining it sitting around Agnes Gowdie’s neck as she fled Scotland for Kent. She was never really here.

‘Allie?’ Rav’s voice floats down the stairs, and I tear my eyes away from my reflection in the glass. As I climb the stairs to our bedroom, Rav is on the landing in a pair of pyjama bottoms, closing the door to Mina’s room.

‘Everything all right?’ he asks, as I go to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He smells of toothpaste. ‘You didn’t hear anything down there, did you?’ I can hear his heart thudding in his chest, his pulse rapid.

‘No,’ I say, letting the relief wash over me. I am tired now, genuinely ready for sleep for the first time in months. ‘There’s nothing down there.’

‘No more talk of spirits and witches?’ Rav asks warily.

‘No more talk of anything like that.’ I shake my head, his chest hair tickling my nose. ‘I know now there was nothing like that. No Agnes Gowdie, no ghosts in the trees. None of that was real.’ I pause, breathing him in. ‘Do you think Naomi will be all right?’