He was reluctant to get any closer, as if there was an invisible circle around the three which he could not enter without committing an act of sacrilege. But when his sister mentioned the fever, he forced his heavy feet into motion. Quietly, he sat down on the bedside and placed a hand on Pippa’s forehead to feel her fever.

“It’s not every day I hear a stranger in my home, Corporal Blacke,” was the politest answer he could give the intruder. He was too much occupied with his patient to notice the extended hand. He took Pippa’s wrist and took out his pocket watch to take her heart rate. He turned to his sister to ask her more about Pippa’s state, but seeing her, he asked instead: “Are you unwell too, Nel?”