Throughout the exchange, Livia is conscious that Thomas is only half listening. Unlike Charlie and her, he has no faith in words. Instead he is busy searching the room. He finds a candle first of all, high up on a shelf; a box of matches. Next, working by candlelight now, he examines the window, finds it expertly barred. An engineer, Sebastian Aschenstedt: thorough. On the floor, not far from the bed, lies his doctor’s bag. Livia remembers his handing it over to her mother when he visited last. The bag has been ransacked, its few remaining contents spilled across the floor. Syringes and little glass vials sealed with tinfoil. The small round tin Sebastian used to infect the child, looking for all the world like a tin of shoe polish, a needle hole at its centre. Thomas unscrews it and finds it encrusted with oily crumbs of brownish Soot. Not far from him, head-high, Mowgli’s mask hangs off a nail like a forgotten face. That’s all, Thomas’s inventory complete. There is nothing in the room that would help them escape.

Livia returns her attention to the door.

“You are doing it for money,” she shouts, spite tinting her breath. “You are a greedy dried-up woman who cares only about herself.”

A silence follows the words. But Mrs. Grendel is still there. Livia can see the shadow of her feet through the crack at the foot of the door.

“You’ve never been poor, duck,” she says, reasonably. “And Tobias asked me. He never asked a thing of me, not once, in all these years. Until tonight. ‘Keep ’em here,’ he said. ‘The lady wishes it. Lock them in if you must. They are still only children,’ he said. ‘Keep them safe.’”

“It was Grendel’s idea?” There is no masking the hurt in Livia’s voice. “I don’t believe you! Grendel acted under duress. Mother forced him to come.”

Again the answer is devastatingly reasonable.

“Lady Naylor needs him to keep the child quiet. The boy trusts him, you see. No Smoke, the little mite, but a cheeky bugger all the same.”

A note of hope swings in this last phrase. What did Grendel say to Livia? We were not blessed ourselves.

“He struck a bargain.” Livia realises at last. “For Mowgli. But it’s impossible. Grendel promised he would help me. And Grendel can’t lie.”

“Can’t he?” Mrs. Grendel snorts. “Lies are but words, and he can speak just fine. It’s hate he can’t. That, and there are limits to his love.”

A moment after she says it, Thomas tries to run down the door. He tries it with a kick first, near the lock. Then an angry charge, a fine mist of Smoke growing darker when it fails. Next Thomas and Charlie try it together. The door does not budge. On the far side, they hear Mrs. Grendel walk away with fast, disgusted steps.

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