The hand of our visitor was on her knee. Holmes took her sleeve, and lifted it. On her wrist we could see five red marks. They were the marks of four fingers and a thumb.
"Did he hurt you?" asked Holmes.
The lady went red, and she put her other hand on her wrist. "He is a strong man" she said. "Sometimes he's stronger than he thinks."
Holmes put his chin on his hands. For a long time he looked into the fire. Nobody spoke. In the end Holmes said "this is very serious. I need to know thousands of very many things before I decide what to do. But there is no time. I want to go to your house today. Can we look at your room? I do not want your stepfather to know we are there.
