Zech opened his mouth wide to indulge his first instinct: yell.

Thankfully, he remembered Sonia was slumbering away whilst he carefully arranged the dominoes about her, and so got up from his office chair instead. He set the stack of just-copied papers under his desk, each sheet separated by a blank page to reduce the smudging of wet ink as he rushed his task. He set Sonia’s folder back, shuffled through, and went to get the door.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he murmured, waving them in. “Come in, come in. The drawing room.”

So they could hear and see if she came down.

He led them to it and took a seat on the couch, facing the doorway.

“I am Zechariah Meijer, and this is my friend, Elijah Crane,” he introduced, quickly, with a gesture to Elijah at his name. “Who do I have the honor of receiving help for my ailing fiancee from?”