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“Where is Eleanor?” Lucy asked at last.
“I believe she challenged the baron—” Did I imagine the slight, sardonic emphasis Cad placed on that word? “—to a few frames of billiards earlier. Shall we go and see how the game is unfolding, Ed? Dita?”
When we entered the large games room at the rear of the house, Eleanor was just bending over the table preparing to take a shot. Sandor was demonstrating how to take the shot, standing beside her with one arm holding her tight about the waist and the other clasping her hand as it held the cue. A furious expletive burst from Eddie’s lips and he charged toward them. Eleanor looked up with a welcoming smile. She and Sandor moved apart without embarrassment.
“Oh, Eddie, have you come to help me?” Eleanor asked, and her brother’s fury subsided somewhat. “I’m very much afraid to have to say this about one of your countrymen, Dita, but I fear the baron here may be a dreadful cheat!”
“How shocking,” Cad murmured to me as, bristling like a protective guard dog, Eddie went over to join the game. “What sort of person would attempt to live out a lie, Dita? Can you imagine?” He fixed a deceptively innocent gaze onto my face as he contemplated the question.
After agonising for several days, I took my burgeoning suspicions to Tynan, expecting him to either laugh or dismiss them as madness. Christmas was looming and the house was heaving with activity. Nevertheless, he listened with his usual courtesy. “So you see,” I explained anxiously watching his face, “I can’t help wondering if these murders might somehow be linked to me. And, if that is the case, it must be Sandor who is responsible for them.”
“I understand what you are saying about his obsession with you. I have been watching him and it is obvious. He never takes his eyes from your face, which does not bode well for my poor daughter. But why would his desire for you lead him to murder these other young women?” Tynan asked.
I shrugged. “Because he is evil. Because he can. Because he wants to warn me, show me what he can do. Because—oh, with Sandor, who knows? I have heard terrible stories of him killing men for sport. He would not flinch at this.”
He was silent, staring out the window for a long time. “Karol wasn’t here when those girls were murdered,” he said.
“Not openly,” I agreed. “But if it was intended to be a warning to me, he knew I would make the connection to him eventually. He may even have ordered someone to come down to Cornwall to do it.”
“You think his men would murder young girls at his command?” he enquired. “And in such an appalling manner? Is he really capable of something so foul?”
“He is capable of anything.” I bit my lip, picturing him with his arm about Eleanor’s waist. “And because of me, he came here and met your family.” I could never sufficiently regret that fact.
“My house and family have survived worse than Karol,” he said. I knew he was thinking of Arwen Jago and, more recently, his own uncle, Uther. “I still don’t see why you are so convinced that the murders have something to do with you.”
“Perhaps I would not have thought it, except that when I lived in Paris, six girls were murdered there,” I said. His brows drew together. “I don’t know the details, so I can’t say for sure if there was a connection. I may be allowing my imagination to run riot without reason.”
“I will make some enquiries about Paris,” he said. “And Karol will be gone from Tenebris before Christmas.”
“Yes,” I said doubtfully. I knew Sandor was determined to take me away with him. If I didn’t go willingly, he would take me by force. Having found me at last, he would not give up easily. Although I tried to prepare for any eventuality, I also knew how devious he could be.
* * *
Eleanor’s school friend, Victoria Cadwallader, arrived amid a flurry of activity and girlish giggling. She was planning to stay for three nights on her way to visit the family of her betrothed in Truro for Christmas. Her forthcoming wedding, to an up-and-coming solicitor with political aspirations, was the subject of extensive discussion between the two friends. Vicky, as she liked to be known, eyed me with wide-eyed admiration and seemed inclined to be intimidated by me. She was also reduced to girlish blushes and perpetual eyelash fluttering by the presence of the handsome Jago brothers and Sandor’s boyish charm.
