I gave her morphine to calm her nerves. She flinched when I touched her, but she let me look. Her body was a mass of bruises. No part of it was sacred anymore to that animal. Grimly, I cleaned what had been soiled and stitched what had been torn.

“Don’t go back,” I said when I’d done what I could. “Stay here.”

“I have to go back,” she said.

“Please don’t.”

“He’ll come looking for me. He’s in such a rage. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”

“I have some idea.”

“He’s gone all vigilante, but who he wants to kill changes every thirty seconds. First, it’s the Japanese. Then, it’s the British. Then it’s Old Mah. Then it’s his own father. Then it’s me. It could just as easily be you, Violet.”

“He’s a monster and a fool.”

“He’s not himself.”

“Please don’t make excuses for him. And please don’t go back.”

I had to do my rounds, but Professor Duffy said she would stay with Emily.

It was a miserable day on the streets. It started with rain, and then the swirling typhoon winds kicked in. Water poured like a river from the sky, warm as blood. The bodies of the dead washed down the street. I spent the morning trying to talk one of the missions into accepting the remnants of an extended family from the countryside, grandmother and children alike thin as chopsticks, with sores on their feet and faces. The mission was already overcrowded and the sisters were beside themselves trying to find beds, dry clothes, and water for the sick, bleeding, traumatized denizens. “Tell Dr Selwyn-Clarke we could use more blankets,” said the sister in charge. “And if there’s any chance of more medicine against dysentery, we could save hundreds of lives.”

I had a small supply on me. I went through the mission, injecting those most likely to survive and, because I had to triage, leaving the nearly dead to die.

When I came back at the end of the day Emily wasn’t there, and neither was Professor Duffy. I banged on the door of everyone who lived in the compound. Edward Kerrison wasn’t in. Nor was Dr Graham-Cumming. Ellen Field was in, but had not seen my sister. I woke Dr Lai Po-Chuen from a heavy sleep. She had not seen my sister either. I woke a lot of patients too, who were not happy to be disturbed.

Eventually I found them both, and little Raymond too, in Courchene’s room. Ting-Yan was also there delivering a supply of bandages and vitamin C tablets smuggled down from Free China.

“Tak-Wing came looking for them at the clinic,” Professor Duffy said. “I didn’t know where else to take them.”

“Christ on the Cross,” I said. “Could matters get any worse?”