“To fetch linens from bedchamber.”
“You can’t go—”
“Hear me,” she said, her voice steel. “My friend is about to bring a child into the world. You will help me. Or if you prevent me, I will see to it that you are arrested for both her death and the child’s. And if you don’t swing for that—” she grasped his fingers, twisted them off her “—I promise you, c**k, I’ll swing for you myself.”
For once, Maggs had no mocking response. He took back his hand. “What must I do?”
“Fetch me hot water. Lots of it.”
She moved to the stairs. Maggs looked to protest again, but at a great cry from Lucy, he turned and made for the kitchen.
Sarah climbed to the level above, where Garnthorpe had never allowed her. Two of the rooms were empty of any but the most basic furniture. The third—she halted in the d
