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Luce groaned And I just go in and pretend like I work here?

No Bill rolled his flinty eyes Go up and introduce yourself to the lady of the house, Mrs Constance Tell her your last place for new employment She's an evil old harridan and a stickler for references Lucky for you, I'm one step ahead of her You'll find yours inside your apron pocket

Luce slipped her hand inside the pocket of her white linen apron and pulled out a thick envelope The back was stamped shut with a red wax seal; when she turned it over, she read Mrs Melville Constance, scrawled in black ink You're kind of a know-it-all, aren't you?

Thank you Bill bowed graciously; then, when he realized Luce had already started toward the house, he flew ahead, beating his wings so rapidly they became two stone-colored blurs on either side of his body

By then they had passed the silver birches and were crossing the manicured lawn Luce was about to start up the pebble path to the house, but hung back when she noticed figures in the gazebo Atoward the house Toward Luce

Get down, she whispered She wasn't ready to be seen by anyone in Helston, especially not with Bill buzzing around her like soet down, he said Just because I made an invisibility exception for your benefit doesn't mean just any mere mortal can see me I'm perfectly discreet where I am Matter of fact, the only eyes I have to be watchful about are--Whoa, hey Bill's stone eyebrows shot up suddenly,down behind the toels, Luce filled in They must be the only other souls who could see Bill in this foruessed this because she could finally make out the man and woh the thick, prickly leaves of the tomato vine, Luce couldn't tear her eyes away from them

Away frorew very still The birds' evening songs quieted, and all she could hear were two pairs of feet walking slowly up the gravel path The last rays of the sun all seeold around hi as he walked The woman as not Luce

She was older than Lucinda could have been--in her twenties, most likely, and very beautiful, with dark, silken curls under a broad straw hat Her long muslin dress was the color of a dandelion and looked like it must have been very expensive

Have you coori? the woht and full of natural confidence

Perhaps too aret Luce's stomach tied up in a jealous knot as she watched Daniel smile at the woman It's hard to believe it's been a week since I arrived in Helston I could stay on longer even than I'd planned He paused Everyone here has been very kind

Margaret blushed, and Luce seethed Even Margaret's blushing was lovely We only hope that will coh in your work, she said Mother's thrilled, of course, to have an artist staying with us Everyone is

Luce crawled along after thearden, she crouched down behind the overgrown rosebushes, planting her hands on the ground and leaning forward to keep the couple in earshot

Then Luce gasped She'd pricked her thu

She sucked on the wound and shook her hand, trying not to get blood on her apron, but by the ti had stopped, she realized she'dup at Daniel expectantly

I asked you if you'll be at the solstice festivities later this week Her tone was a bit pleading Mother alwayslike yes, he wouldn'taway from the woman His eyes darted around the lawn, as if he sensed Luce behind the roses

When his gaze swept over the bushes where she crouched, they flashed the most intense shade of violet

Chapter Six

THE WOMAN IN WHITE HELSTON, ENGLAND

JUNE 18, 1854

By the tinized the setting at once, as soon as the Announcer ejected hile banks of the Loe The lake was still, reflecting big tufts of pink cloud in the evening sky Startled by his sudden appearance, a pair of kingfishers took off across the field of clover and came to rest in a crooked moorland tree beside the main road The road led, he knew, into the small tohere he'd spent a sureen earth touched a soft place inside him As much as he worked to close every door to their past, asdeaths--some mattered more than others He was surprised at how clearly he still recalled their tiland

But Daniel wasn't here on holiday He wasn't here to fall in love with the beautiful copper trader's daughter He was here to stop a reckless girl fro so lost in the dark moments of her past that it killed her He was here to help her undo their curse, once and for all

He started the long walk toward town

It was a war in Helston Out on the streets, ladies in bonnets and lace- triowns spoke in low, polite voices to the linen-suited men whose arms they held Couples paused in front of shop s They lingered to speak with their neighbors They stopped on street corners and took tenabout these people, fro, was so infuriatingly slow Daniel could not have felt more at odds with the passersby on the street

His wings, hidden beneath his coat, burned with his ih the people There was one fail-safe place where he knew he could find Lucinda--she visited the gazebo in his patron's back garden ht find Luce--the one hopping in and out of Announcers, the one he needed to find--that, there was no way of knowing