“Don’t, Thomas. I thank you. But don’t.”

Thomas’s response carries the notes of genuine wonder.

“Christ, Charlie, can’t you smell her Smoke? Can’t you smell what she feels?”

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The next morning Sebastian calls before dawn. He is in a rush, will barely come in, won’t take off his coat. All he wants is to talk. When Charlie, sleep-creased, alerted by his urgent whisper, arrives in the front hallway he is unsurprised to find Grendel to be part of the conversation. Or rather: Grendel is being spoken to, Sebastian’s hand on his wrists. The tones of instruction; too quiet to carry. Lady Naylor is there, too, holding Sebastian’s doctor’s bag. It’s heavy enough to give a list to her tall frame. In the kitchen doorway Mrs. Grendel stands. She, too, is out of earshot, at five feet’s remove. Their gazes meet, hers and Charlie’s. A moment later she beckons to him.

“What’s going on?” he asks once he has followed her into the kitchen. Her back is turned, her hand reaching into a clay pot on the sideboard.

“Lady Naylor sent me out for this,” she replies. “Yesterday. Had me walk for miles, going somewheres where they wouldn’t know me. So it won’t attract attention, me growing rich one day to the next.”

She takes hold of Charlie’s palm and deposits a brown, sticky lump in it. Sugar.

“Go on,” she says, “you need fattening, you do.”

He puts it in his mouth, speaks past the shock of its flavour, sickly and moist.

“What is Sebastian saying? Something go wrong?”

“Don’t know,” she answers, sneaking some sugar herself. “Trust in Grendel.”

But as her tongue picks through her teeth, hunting sweetness, Charlie wonders whether he can.

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Sebastian leaves soon after that. A minute later, Livia is at the front door. She slips out so quickly, Charlie has no time to think. A glance his way before the door closes. An unspoken question. The suggestion of a shrug.

Then she is gone.

By the time Charlie has his shoes on, there is no sign of her, the street outside choking with strangers, refuse, drifting fog. Back in their room Thomas is still sleeping, twitchy in his dreams.

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Livia returns just before lunch. Thomas has woken and left, in search of the sewer entrance. Charlie offered to come, but they did not want to let Lady Naylor out of their sight. It is better this way: it affords Charlie time to gather his courage. All he needs now is for Livia to return before his friend.