Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Chapter Ten
Whole Dispositions, vertues and naturall
motions depend on the Activitie of the heavenly
motions and Influences.
—John Dee, Mathematicall Praeface
Dot wasn’t sure what to do next. Here she was at the correct
address in Carlton. It was a workman’s house, of light and dark
stone with a slate roof, very dark and uninhabited-looking. She
had unlatched the wrought-iron gate, tripped over the statutory
misplaced brick and rung the doorbell. It had made a ratchety
broken sort of noise, a strangled clockwork grunt.
Dot knocked firmly with one gloved hand and the front
door swung open.
So she stood in the dark doorway, wondering what to do. It
was clearly unsafe to leave one’s front door open. No one would
have done so unless they were at home. If it had been someone
whom Dot had previously met she would not have hesitated.
But there was something so intrusive about entering a house
where she had not been introduced….
While she was thinking about it, she listened. The house,
as far as she could see, was of the usual Carlton cottage design.
Two rooms beside a central corridor, leading into a main parlour