Page 3 (1/2)

Jear under control required a strict diet, and their cook prepared her uests It didn’t reallyat all; her mother simply expected her to be at the table In Meryl’s view punctuality was a courtesy, tardiness a deliberate offense

I know you don’t intend to he deliberately ill-mannered, Jema, her mother had said the last time she had cos When you don’t arrive on liht up in work--No, don’t mention work; she hates that," she muttered under her breath before she resumed the rehearsal "It was inconsiderate I was inconsiderate Of you I’m sorry I was so inconsiderate of you, Mother" She scowled "I sound like I’ like I’m twelve"

Jema didn’t knohy she felt coies before she delivered them Whatever see completely inadequate in front of Meryl Shaw’s ihtless, Jeenuine She knew she was an enormous disappointment to her mother; she didn’t need to add insult to injury

"Maybe if you meant it," Jeht-iron gates that kept out the curious and the misdirected, "she’d believe you"

She looked toward the house and caught a partial reflection of her face in the rearview mirror An oval-shaped slice of eyes and forehead Gaunt, pale, pathetic, but at least it was there She turned away before she saw anythe life out of her since the day she was born, but now it see

"I’m not sorry" Je her forehead against the cool leather encasing the steering wheel "It’sthat to Meryl, who had kept Jema alive for the last twenty-nine years, would be the sa her in the abdohtened, pressed the reates when they opened She parked to one side of the garage where her mother’s stately Rolls-Royce was kept, and went into the house through the kitchen entrance The cook had already tidied up and left, but Je fro room, and followed them

"I am not interested in your opinions, Daniel I employ you as our physician," Meryl Shaw said, her voice matter-of-fact "Not the family therapist"

Jema stopped outside in the hall and listened

"Would you like y?" Dr Daniel Bradford sounded equally calm and controlled, but affection made his tone warmer than Meryl’s "You can’t imprison Jema She needs her work and a certain amount of freedom"

"I decide what Jema needs," Meryl stated flatly "Not you, not anyone" She coughed several ti chest pains"

Here coainst the wall and closed her eyes

There was a stretch of silence, and then Dr Bradford spoke, far ently this tier only aggravates it No," he said as Meryl , "you’re not Drink this to settle your stoer set on silent that Jery bee trapped in her pocket She checked the display, but she already knehat it said The other, secret part of her life beckoned

She glanced at the door, pocketed the pager, and walked away fro room

As Jema drove away from the estate, she didn’t look back

She never saw the hunched shape of the ates of Shaw House slid closed

The ht fro he wore sparkle "Miss Shaw has left the premises"

The reply was immediate and terse "Follow her"

Chapter 2

Valentin Jaus swung his langenschwert up and over his head, placing the blade behind his back His opponent and seneschal, Falco Erhart, circled left rather than taking advantage of the opening In the long mirrored wall beyond the a short, fair-haired David

Although Jaus was the master of Falco, Derabend Hall, and everyone atched them, he was not the Goliath of the or Sacher, said fro area, known as the lists, was so large that any voice echoed--whenever clashing steel didn’t drown it out To the teenage boy standing beside hies the Spaniards’ arrebatar technique, which permits a feichmeister to cut with the whole ar, Opah" Wilhelm Sacher watched both , he was permitted to observe most aspects of Jaus’s life within the walls of Derabend Hall "He goes to the side"