He found he did not know how to address her.

‘Eleanor. My dear. You are unharmed? I am afraid I could not locate you in all this mayhem. Were you alarmed?’

‘Alasdair. I believe I was very much alarmed. I looked for you inside.’

Eleanor did not look alarmed. Her expression was difficult to read; some immense emotion swirled just below the surface, he fancied, though he could not label it fear and had no other name for it. She watched him as though from a very great distance.

‘Are you alright, sir?’ said Greensmith, hovering a little in the manner of a subordinate who, in the face of danger, had found himself absent from his master’s side and was now anxious to make amends. Not that anxious, perhaps, for Greensmith, a young man of pleasing if somewhat bland features, of average stature and clothed conservatively in the best coat and hat that a man on a secretary’s salary might afford, remained steadfastly at Mrs Dunlevy’s side as though he had been posted there.

‘Quite alright, Greensmith, as you see. Come, Eleanor, let us go. There is nothing to be gained by remaining here. A lot of silly talk, in fact, that I think it might be best to avoid.’

Eleanor did not enquire what the silly talk was of and he was thankful, for he did not wish to tell her. She had her coat on already and a fur pulled closely about her neck against the chill night air outside. She had been leaving then—without him? Or had she stood here to await him? He did not know.

‘It will be a devil of a job finding a cab,’ he said instead, finding safety in platitudes, and he left her and went down the front steps just as if he intended to stand in the wind and the rain hailing a cab himself. Greensmith had an umbrella ready in his hands but, instead of following, his secretary opened the umbrella over his wife’s head, though she was quite sheltered from the weather on the covered verandah. Irritated, Alasdair summoned a footman and ordered him to find a cab. He rejoined his wife and secretary, and they stood silently staring ahead of them, the rain beating on the roof above.