"Here I have been so forthright sharing what I know with you, treated you as an equal, and you brandish that thing," said Doctor Blanche. At the dying of a final note, she ceased playing, and recognition dawned suddenly on Margaret's face, on Zoe's and Michelle's, which had not been there before.<br/><br/>"What are you doing out in the dark?" Margaret Hotspur whisper. "What have you found?"<br/><br/>"It must be the middle of the night," said Michelle.<br/><br/>"What is going on?" Zoe asked.<br/><br/>By Doctor Noire's key, the kitchen door opened, and within was dark and lifeless. A side door looked out onto the west lawn, muddy with rain, and tucked behind the cabinets were the creaky old cellar steps, leading down into that tunnel whence one first arrived. No lights, no fire beyond Doctor Blanche's sweltering hospitality, and neither flashes of lightning down below in the windowless underground.<br/><br/>"Get going from my sight, you wicked waif," said Doctor Blanche. "This fire is for pleasant company, I shall not share it with marauding brigands."