It was a child crying for help and Nanna automatically responded.
“We’ll look after him, Miss Shimona. Don’t you worry.”
Then she went up the stairs and Shimona followed her.
As she reached the top, she heard Alister say,
“I will be back later.”
Then he was gone and a moment later the men who had carried the Duke upstairs passed her on the small landing and left the house.
The Duke was lying on his face in the centre of a big double bed that seemed almost to fill the room.
Mrs. Saunders was staring at his back.
In the light from the candles she had lit it was even more horrifying than it had seemed in the dim light downstairs.
“It’ll kill His Grace,” she said after a moment. “There’s naught they can do for burns as bad as those!”
“Something has to be done!” Shimona answered fierc
