Gareth was simultaneously fascinated and repulsed, and both increasingly, as he listened. He sat entirely still, still leaning forward, his eyes the only thing that moved, shifting from Pearl to Tilly. "How much blood...?" he asked. "It may have been a courtesan's menses, for all we know."

For all the sensationalist writing Gareth did, he was surprisingly level headed. He might suggest the worst in his writings, but he would exclude all other options before he believed it himself.