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Ada Beth was well-known around the village of Lokirk in which she lived. Her house was a small, rundown brick cottage on the outskirts of the town, into which no-one was ever invited. In fact, the villagers rarely glimpsed through the windows, for they were always obscured with thick black-out curtains. It was rumoured that she had a daughter living there too, though she had never been seen; and those rumours may, after all, have been only rumours and nothing more, as Ada was the constant victim of gossip. They said she was a witch. They said she was a lunatic and they said she was an alcoholic.