Jack Pike was the particular call of a silver cuspidor. Umbitt. My grandfather, all laws, all terrors. Grandfather to us Iremongers was the planets and their movements, no sun could ever come, no morning, no colours, no movements, no breath without his say-so. He was permission to exist got up in dark garments, in a black, black suit.

‘Is it,’ I whispered faintly, ‘is it he?’

‘Do you not know your own grandfather?’ came the thick voice.

‘Grandfather! Oh, my grandfather!’

‘Is it so strange,’ he said, deep in his corner still, ‘that a grandfather should visit his poor grandchild in distress?’

‘Yes, sir, I mean, no, sir. I mean, how do you do, sir.’

‘Clod, don’t be a stranger.’

‘It is very kind of you to visit, Grandfather.’

‘Yes.’

‘Have I been ill? Have I been ill a long time?’

‘In the history of the world, no. In the history of Clod Iremonger, a few hours.’

‘Is it dark yet? Is it night again?’

‘It is dark in this room. It is night here. Curtains and shutters alter time.’

‘It is still day then? What o’clock?’

‘It is time for a talk, Clod. That is the exact measure.’

‘I saw a girl, Grandfather, a starving girl and a bucket.’

‘Clod Iremonger, concentrate! Do you see what is on the table there beside you?’

I felt a brown paper parcel.

‘Do please to open it,’ Grandfather said.

I lifted the parcel, pulled the string and opened the paper to see what was inside. It was something folded up, something new and clean and dark. I pulled it out a little, and just by touching it I knew what it was.

‘Trousers!’ I called.

‘Your trousers have come,’ he said.

‘So soon?’

‘You sound disappointed.’

‘No, sir,’ I said. ‘I thought I should not be trousered for six months.’

‘Time has been moved forward,’ he said.

‘And I am to marry Pinalippy?’

‘Soon enough, quite soon enough,’ he said. ‘You are called now. You are to be made ready. You shall be required in the city.’

‘The city! But I was told I should stay here, that I would never leave Heap House. That my illness –’

‘You have been told a great many things,’ he said, ‘for your own protection, and for others’.’

‘Grandfather, may I ask something?’ I said, my head spinning and aching and pounding with buildings of thoughts inside coming down and going up again.

‘Ask.’

‘Who was the girl I saw, the ragged one in Rosamud’s room?’

‘Not that, not yet. Ask another.’

‘Grandfather, if I am to go to the city am I well then?’

‘No,’ he said, ‘you are fragile, Clod. You are not like other children, you break easily, you may shatter. But, unlike other children, you have certain sensibilities, a certain understanding, a different, shall we say, outlook on the world.’

‘Because I am ill?’

‘Because you hear things.’

‘Yes, I do hear things, sir, I do truly.’