Tuo arrives at the Ward household sometime later, having returned Malta to her stable and seen to her brushing down and feeding. It's work he could have left to Detlef, but it is a comfort sometimes to take care of an animal on one's own. When at last he arrives outside the house, he is fresh-faced and perhaps a bit damp from washing up; it wouldn't do to enter the magistrate's home smelling like a stable.

He knocks, laces his fingers together behind himself, and waits to be admitted.