‘Off you run then,’ she said, and she smiled such a kind, loving smile that for a moment all I could think of was what a sweet old woman she was, how dear, how fragile, and for a little while I lost sight of the other grandmother, the unforgiving one, the unforgivable one, the fierce limiter of people’s lives. She even had tears in her eyes. My own grandmother.

It was noisier yet away from Grandmother’s room. Out in the house again, the roar of the storm everywhere about. All the shutters had been closed but things could be heard smashing against them. There was some broken glass along Grandmother’s corridor. The whole house was rumbling.

‘Has the train come in yet?’ I asked Grandmother’s porter on the main stairs.

‘Not yet, sir,’ he said.

‘It’s very late then.’

‘Yes, indeed it’s late, sir, very.’

‘Has there been much damage yet?’

‘I shouldn’t like to be in the attics now, there was a tumbling up there. There have been rushes of dust, sir, descending, even here upon the main stairway. You see a pile there, sir, ’bout halfway down.’

I saw it, a small mass of dirt and chippings, there was something of a crack in the ceiling, not very large, nothing to worry about probably.

‘I heard there was a Gathering, has it been caught?’

‘Not yet, I think. There are many noises all around the house tonight, and some of those might be a Gathering, and some might be the storm, I couldn’t exactly say. There are city people about the Gathering in any case, so it cannot last long.’

‘And tell me, porter, have the rats come down yet?’ I asked.

‘Yes, sir, two hours since. Just after you went in to see my lady. There was a great parade of them, never seen so many. All of one opinion, all going down, down the stairway. I stood here, out of their way, even upon the desk. It took them twelve minutes to quite pass through. Didn’t know we had that many.’

‘Where are they going?’

‘Oh, out, I would say, sir, shouldn’t you? They don’t want to stay in here.’

‘Where out?’

‘Out in the heaps of course.’

‘In the heaps, during a storm like this?’

‘Certainly, sir, they’d rather take their chances out there than be stuck in here. There’s nothing should keep them in the house tonight. T’ain’t safe, they think. What a fuss they made about it, skittish I’d call it. Didn’t let off their screeching. They didn’t want to stay here. Wouldn’t for anything. T’ain’t safe. T’ain’t safe. They think.’

‘Do you think it’s safe, Iremonger?’ I asked.