Tristan was a light sleeper. He had to be as a doctor. Back in the asylum there had been breakdowns in the middle of the night, and he had often been woken up to calm a patient down. So when there was a thud from the floor above, his eyes shot open. There was a shout. Had Pippa fallen out of bed and hurt herself?

But the next shout had him jump out of bed (more gracefully than his servant had). He wasn't very familiar with his room in the dark yet, and so he did bump his leg into the corner of his nightstand on his way to the door, but though it hurt like hell, he didn't stop. He had heard from the tone of that shout that something serious was going on. Tristan hurried up the steep and uneven stairs in the dark, stumbled, slid down a few steps and hurt himself more, found his balance, and hurried on. He burst into the room.