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Melisande looked at him "What--?"

"Shh"

And then she heard Fro, as if some subterranean creature had stirred

Vale sla Melisande start "Oy! Come and let us in!"

A bolt shot back with a thump, and the door slowly creaked open A short littleginger hair sprang out on either side of his head like the down on a dandelion The top of his head was cohtshirt and boots, and he scowled up at thely "I am Viscount Vale, and this is my lady wife We’ve come to stay with your master"

"No, you ain’t," the creature said, and began to swing shut the door

Vale put out a hand and stopped the door "Yes, we are"

The littleto close it, but it wouldn’t budge "No one’s tol’ ot the rooo away again"

By this time, Vale had lost his smile "Let us in and we’ll settle the accommodations later"

The little man opened his mouth, obviously quite prepared to do further battle, but at that moment, Mouse finally rejoined them The terrier took one look a Sir Alistair’s servant and decided he was the enes bounced off the ground The ginger-haired little h-pitched squeal and jumped back That was all Vale needed He slammed open the door and crowded in with Mr Pynch by his side

"Stay by the carriage until we’re ready," Melisande instructed Suchlike, and then she entered the castle more sedately behind the men

"You can’t! You can’t! You can’t!" the little

"Where is Sir Alistair?" Vale deht not be back for hours"

"He rides in the dark?" Melisande asked, startled The countryside they’d been driving through was rugged, rocky, and hilly She wouldn’t have thought it safe to ride about alone and at night

But the littleahead of them, doide hallway They followed and stopped when he flung open a door "You can wait in here, if you like It makes no difference to ht him by the collar "Wait" Vale looked at Melisande "Can you stay here with Mouse while Pynch and I find bedrooms and some food?"

The roo, but Melisande lifted her chin "Certainly"

"Brave, my sife" Jasper brushed his lips across her cheek "Pynch, light some candles for her ladyship, and then we’ll have this fine fellow give us a tour"

"Yes, my lord" Mr Pynch lit four candles--all the room held--from his lantern and thefootsteps and then shivered and looked around her She was in a kind of sitting roos of chairs--very old and very ugly The carved wood ceiling was terribly high, and the candlelight didn’t entirely pierce the dark overhead Melisande thought she saisps of old spiderwebs hanging down The walls were also of dark, carved wood and had been decorated by stuffed anier, and a fox Their glass eyes were eerie in the gloo herself, she walked deterray stone fireplace at the room’s far end It was obviously very old--probably older than all the carved wood paneling--and entirely black inside She found a box by the side containing a few sticks and one log, which she carefully placed inside the fireplace, trying not to think of spiders Mouse caain to investigate the shadows

Melisande stood and brushed off her hands She searched the mantelpiece and finally found a jar of dusty tapers She lit one from a candle and held it to the sticks, but the sticks wouldn’t catch, and the taper soon burned down Melisande reached for ƒde ofanother taper and was just about to light it when Mouse barked

She started and turned A man stood behind her, tall and dark and lean, his shoulder-length hair hanging tangled about his face He was looking at Mouse, standing at his feet, but at Melisande’s movement, he turned his head to her The left side of his face isted with scars, lit awfully by the flickering candles, and the eye socket on that side was sunken and empty

Melisande dropped the taper

MUNROE’S MANSERVANT WAS telling them that he hadn’t any clean linens in the entire manor, and Jasper was about to shake the man in frustration when he heard Mouse bark He looked at Pynch, and without a word, they turned and ran back down the dark, twisting stairs Jasper cursed He should never have left Melisande alone

Outside the sitting rooain since that first time Jasper peered in the room Melisande stood at the far end, her back to the fireplace Mouse was in front of her, legs stiff, but he was silent And facing both of the coat

Jasper stiffened

Munroe turned and Jasper couldn’t help but flinch When last he’d seen theTime had healed the wounds that covered the left side of his face, scarred them over, but it hadn’t made them any prettier

"Renshaw," Munroe rasped His voice had always been husky, but after Spinner’s Falls, it had taken on a broken quality, as if daed by his screams "But you’re Vale now, aren’t you? Lord Vale"