‘Good God, when I saw them with blood up to the elbows, and they looked at us, their faces as innocent as scholars at a desk! What were they doing? What Satan’s work were they doing? Was it a Mass? Were they really eating her flesh and drinking her blood in a Satanic Mass?’

‘I don’t know,’ Luca said. He put his hand to his head. ‘I can’t think . . .’

‘Now look at you!’ Freize exclaimed. ‘You should still be in bed, and the Lord knows I feel badly myself. I’ll take you back to the hospital and you can rest.’

Luca recoiled. ‘Not there,’ he said. ‘I’m not going back in there. Take me to my room at the priest house and I will sleep till Lord Lucretili gets here. Wake me as soon as he comes.’

In the cellar, the two young women were shrouded in darkness as if they were already in their grave. It was like being buried alive. They blinked and strained their eyes but they were blind.