As I drifted off to sleep I heard Ellen's timid tapping on my bedroom door. This time there was a little trickle of blood running down her face, caused, I later learned, by Aubery's heavy signet ring. She collapsed, crying, into my arms, and I led her gently to my bed and held her tenderly for the remainder of the night. Without the need for words we both knew that this was now Ellen's bedroom as well as mine.