Gormenghast is made for storms and this one allows Steerpike to further insinuate himself into the life of the castle. Here he rescues the daughter of the Earl, though nothing Steerpike does is from gentle motives, all is calculation.

‘A hundred rain-thrashed pools had collected among the rocks.’

Source: Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, introduction by Anthony Burgess (London: Vintage Books, 1998), p. 257