“She was in pain but also in good spirits.” Gemma sat up straight and turned, facing him almost directly. “But, also, Baz, I know her!”

“You do?”

Her eyes lit with excitement. “She is from Southwark. We knew each other growing up.”

“How remarkable! Were you friends?”

“As near as any Kincaid comes to having friends.”

In an instant, he knew of a difficulty. “She knows your history.”

“Oi, but I talked with her before I hopped off. She twigged why I’d rather the Donnellys not know what sort of people my family are. She said she’d keep mum on it, but if her husband asked her direct, she’d not care to lie to him. I told her I thought that was fair enough.”

“I can tell you this: the Donnellys are good people. Even if they discover your past, they’ll not hold it against you. They have ghosts of their own; they know life gets complicated.”

“Do they know about your mother’s ‘complicated’ life?”

He nodded. “Brogan has helped me with some of my rescues. During one of them, I explained why I want to save as many women as I can from the life my mother was forced to live.”

She placed a kiss on his cheek. “You saved me from having to live that life. And you gave me freedom I’d never known before.”

“You deserved to be free. You’ll always deserve that.”

Before she could answer, someone knocked at the door.

“Go see who it is,” she suggested. “I’ll put the kettle on.”

She headed for the kitchen while Barnabus made his way to the front door.

Brogan stood on the other side. “Might I steal a moment of your time, Doc?”

Barnabus motioned him in. “Is something the matter with Vera? Gemma said she seemed to be in pain today.”

“She’s still hurting,” he said, “and ’tis difficult for her to move about, but she grows stronger every day. I’ve come on another matter entirely.”

Barnabus hooked his thumb in the direction of the library.

“You look a bit worse for wear, if you don’t mind my saying so,” Brogan said, following Barnabus into the room. “Have you had a difficult day?”

Barnabus nodded. “Another fire, one likely connected to all the others. While looking it over, Stone and Fletcher and I caught sight of Serena. We tried to convince her to let us help her, but she’s too terrified of the Mastiff to take the risk.”

“’Tis a frustrating thing when a person’s in too much danger to even contemplate running from it,” Brogan said.

It was, at that. But it also wasn’t the only thing weighing on Barnabus’s mind. “Scrawled on one of the walls of that alley, in ash of all things, was ‘The Tempest is coming.’”