Skulduggery was beginning to suspect that Landel could read their thoughts, and had a vested interest in shocking Skulduggery out of those same important thoughts as much as possible. First, the hair-woman in the Sun Room. Then the hairball during lunch, which had caught him completely off-guard, as he was still getting used to breathing, let alone swallowing. Now, his chair had tipped quite suddenly to the side with no warning, which would barely have been an issue were it not for the extra body weight. And even then, Skulduggery might have been able to stand up in time - using the table for support, perhaps - but the man who knocked over the chair tried to pull it upright at the exact same time. The result was Skulduggery, arms flailing for extra balance he'd never be able to find, pitching off the chair and onto the floor.

His first, slightly embarrassing, thought was at least the floor is carpeted.

The offender, at least, seemed apologetic. "Probably," Skulduggery agreed cordially as he struggled to find his way into a sitting position. The side of his body that had been burned sent fresh lightning jabs of pain shooting up into his torso. "But, no harm done."