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in danger. A woman you showed interest in merely days ago, as memory recalls.”
“Agreed. But what makes you so sure we will find either Dorinda or LaRusse at Hever? Anne
claims they are missing.”
“The fact that Anne doesn’t know where they might be is hardly proof they’ve left the property,”
Trevor said, pulling his horse to a halt as the walls of Hever came into view.
Rayley pulled up as well. “No matter now, for it lies before us. The lost castle of a lost romance.
But something seems changed.”
“What?”
“I can’t say.” Rayley frowned, studying the contours of the castle in the moonlight. “It is just an
impression.”
“So what do you expect we shall find here, Abrams?” Trevor said softly. “Do you think that LaRusse
has fallen to Dorinda or that Dorinda has succumbed to LaRusse? For we are standing witness to a
great battle, it seems. A sort of battle between the sexes, and we both know that type of fight yields
no victors.”
“I have no idea what waits for us below,” Rayley said, prodding his horse into motion. “But it
frightens me.”
****
“We are looking for a certain girl,” Tess said to Madame Renata. “You said you see Anne at a table,
eating stew. But do you see another young woman, someone who goes by the name Dorinda
Spencer?”
The mystic paused for a moment then shook her head. “There is only darkness.”
“Or her sister?” Emma said, aware of the breathless anxiety in her voice. “A girl named Rose?”
Another silence, longer and more agonizing than the first. Emma was clutching Geraldine’s hand on
one side and Marjorie’s on another. It seemed that every woman in the circle, save for Madame
Renata, was holding her breath.
“A Rose has stepped forward.” the mystic finally said.
“Where is she?” Marjorie asked. “What is she doing?”
Silence. An ocean of silence, a mountain, an eternity. The entire world seemed to have frozen.
Madame Renata shook her head. A short, definitive gesture, followed by the opening of her eyes.
“The spirits have withdrawn,” she said, in her normal voice. “Shall we have tea?”
“Tea?” Marjorie muttered as the three older women left the table and moved into the drawing room.
Tess and Geraldine were still clearly shaken, but Madame Renata was as unperturbed as a woman
waking from a pleasant nap. “It’s always tea. Do you think there is truth to anything the woman
said? I find the high pedigree of her spiritual guides rather questionable.”