I am about to extinguish the lamp when there is a knock on my door. A soft knock, one that is careful not to be heard throughout the flat. Bemused by this string of visitors, half hoping for, half dreading Livia’s return, I open the door. Mr. Grendel is in his nightshirt and flustered; he wrings his cotton sleeping cap between work-hard hands. A strange man, shy and cringing in his movements; so diffident that I have yet to see him smoke. There are not many who would have stood at the threshold of my boudoir without giving my figure a passing glance.

“Mr. Grendel. This is hardly appropriate.”

“I am sorry,” he says, abject and whispering, his head tilted to one side. “May I. .? I saw your light was on and there is something. . You see, it’s rather important.”

“Oh, out with it!” I laugh, usher him in by his elbow, and sit him down on his own rickety chair. “Go on, speak, Mr. Grendel. It is late and I am in need of my sleep.”

ф

We talk for a full hour. As it turns out, I was wrong about Grendel. He is not diffident nor shy but that rarest of creatures: a man touched by fate who lacks a purpose. His wife has sent him to me to provide him with one.

I do my best to oblige.

PENCIL AND PAPER

PENCIL AND PAPER

Livia sleeps late, her mother’s words refracting in her dreams. By the time she emerges from her room, Sebastian is in the house and there is a new arrangement. Grendel has been made nursemaid to the child. The smokeless man smiles when he emerges from the nursery-prison, and continues smiling when, under Sebastian’s watchful eye, he turns the key in the lock. Then he notices Livia — and starts.

“Caught in the act!” he blushes then adds, as though in apology: “Mrs. Grendel and I, we were not blessed ourselves, you see.”

Grendel flashes her a smile, habitual and fleeting, and runs to do the dishes in the kitchen.

Sebastian stays, studying Livia.

“You disapprove, Miss Naylor.”

Livia shakes her head, wondering what emotion her face has betrayed.

“It’s a good idea. Grendel is a kind man.”

“You know yourself he’s quite a lot more than that! He’s a scientific wonder. At another time. . but, alas, it isn’t possible just now.” He sighs, points at his prisoner’s door. “As it is, Mr. Grendel can make himself useful. I believe he reminds the child of his people at home. Though the resemblance is superficial. In any case, he will help calm the child. The boy is bewildered by Smoke, and I am afraid we smell of it, even when we are not showing.”

Livia’s heart sinks. “So you know.”