Cal turned at the sound. Hannah pulled the service door open, hard enough that it struck the outer wall.
He reached for her. Nora stepped between them, not far, only enough to interrupt the reach. He caught the front of her coat in his left hand and shoved her against the edge of the counter.
Pain went through her injured arm. She cried out. Hannah turned back, saw the knife and moved toward Cal, then stopped when Nora said, “Go.”
Cal pulled Nora closer. The knife was in his right hand. He lifted it between them, the blade turning toward her as he said something she couldn't understand.
Nora pushed his right forearm down and away with her good hand. It was not a thought-out movement. She wanted the blade away from her body; she put everything she could manage into that one action.
His left hand was still holding her coat. As he fought the push, the blade crossed his own left forearm, still stretched out to grip her coat.
He made a short, astonished noise and let go.
Nora stumbled back. Blood appeared on his left sleeve, then more where he pulled his arm against himself. The knife fell onto the floor beside the counter. He stared at the cut as if it had been done by somebody he hadn't seen.
Hannah was outside. The open door framed her for a moment, then she moved farther away, her phone at her ear. Nora could hear her giving the address, saying there was a knife, someone hurt, the back entrance open. She had got out. She was telling people how to get in.
Cal pressed his right hand against his left arm. He looked at Nora with a fear she recognized from the hospital, except now the blood was his.
“Nor.”
She stood beside the counter, breathing hard. Her own left arm hurt so much she couldn't tell whether she'd damaged it again. She looked at the knife on the floor, at the door, at the space through which she could leave.
Cal sank against the wall and slid down. His right hand stayed on the wound, blood passing between the fingers.
“Help me.”
Nora could go outside. Hannah was there. Police were coming to an address two women had given them clearly. She would not have to remain within reach of the man who had just pulled a knife toward her.
She remembered the garden-room floor, Iris's footsteps leaving, the desire for someone to come close enough to hear her.
Nora took a clean folded cloth from the shelf beside the sink. She stayed clear of the knife and went toward her brother.