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They cli the back of her neck painfully At the top of the stairs, Melisande turned and her heart nearly stopped Suchlike was just co out of her room

"My lady?" Suchlike said in a confused voice She looked from Melisande to Mr Horn

Melisande spoke rapidly before her captor could speak "What are you doing here, girl? I told you to have ed and pressed by noon"

Suchlike’s eyes widened Melisande had never spoken to her so harshly before And then things got worse Behind the maid, Mouse poked his nose out of the room and scrambled into the hall He raced toward Melisande and Mr Horn, barking madly

Melisande felt Mr Horn move as if to pull the pistol from her side Mouse was at her feet now, and she acted quickly, kicking poor Mouse away The dog yelped in pain and confusion and sprawled onto his back

Melisande looked at Suchlike "Take this dog with you to the kitchens Do it now Andhabit, or I’ll dismiss you this afternoon"

Suchlike had never liked Mouse, but she scrambled forward and hastily scooped the terrier into her arms She ran past Melisande and Mr Horn, her eyes filled with tears

Melisande exhaled when the ht

"Very nice," Mr Horn said "Nohere is Vale’s bedroom?"

Melisande pointed to the rooed her toward it She had another leap of fear as he opened the door What if Mr Pynch was inside? She had no idea where the manservant was

But the room was empty

Mr Horn hauled her toward the dresser and began throwing Vale’s neatly folded neck cloths to the ground

"He was there when they tortured me They tied him to a stake and held his head so he had to watch I almost felt more sorry for him than for me" He stopped suddenly and inhaled "I can still see those blue eyes of his filling with grief while they burned my chest He knohat it was like He knohat they did to me He knows it took the British arn to ransom us"

"You blame Jasper for your wounds," Melisande whispered

"Don’t be a witless fool," he snapped "Vale could no more help as done to him than we could help as done to us What I blame him for is his betrayal He of all people should understand why I did what I did"

Having eed her to the wardrobe "He knohat it was like He was there How dare he judge me? How dare he?"

Melisande saw that his eyes were ice-cold and deterht froze her with terror Mr Horn was cornered, and it was only a matter of time until he found that she’d lied

BY THE TIME Jasper h his chest with fear He flung his horse’s reins to a boy and leapt the steps without waiting for Pynch He threw open his front doors and went in, only to skid to a stop

Melisande’sher were Oaks and two footmen

Oaks turned at Jasper’s entrance, his face drawn and lined "My lord! We think Lady Vale is in trouble"

"Where is she?" Jasper deled hard in her aret down "There’s a un"

Jasper’s blood froze in his veins, painful ice crystallizing No Christ, no

"Where did you see them, Sally?" Pynch said from beside Jasper

"At the top of the stairs," Suchlike said "Outside your rooave such a desperate lurch that she gasped and dropped hi ran to Jasper and barked once before sca toward the stairs He juain

"Stay here," Jasper said to the servants "If he sees tooto say aloud the awful possibility

He started for the stairs

"My lord," Pynch called

Jasper looked over his shoulder

The valet was proffering two pistols Pynch uns Still, he held theo up unarmed"

Jasper snatched the weapons without a word and whirled to the stairs Mouse barked and ran up the stairs ahead of hi and continued to the second story, where the master bedrooms were Jasper paused on the top step to listen Mouse stood by his ankle, patiently watching hi faintly down below, and theher Other than that, all was silent He refused to think what the silence ht mean

He crept to his door on the balls of his feet, Mouse silently trailing him The door was partly open, and he crouched so as to et as he pushed it open

Nothing happened

Jasper took a breath and looked at the dog Mouse atching hiht be in the room Jasper swore under his breath and entered the room Matthew had obviously been here Jasper’s clothes were on the floor, his linens ripped from the bed he never used He crossed and looked in the sh it had been torn apart, no one was there now When he ca at one of the pillows on the floor Jasper looked and nearly fell to his knees

The pillow had a small streak of blood

He closed his eyes No No, she wasn’t hurt; she wasn’t dead He couldn’t believe otherwise--and remain sane He opened his eyes and lifted the pistols to the ready Then he went through the rest of the roo and desperate Mouse had followed hi under the beds and in the corners, but he’d not seemed that interested in any of them