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gone.
    Nevertheless, Tobias still looked like the Archangel Gabriel. And even here, the sight of him made her breath hitch, betraying a weakness she refused to surrender to. Angels weren’t always as advertised, and Tobias would definitely be of the fallen variety.
    But now he stiffened, his face turning pale as he gazed at the corpse in naked horror. “Dear God, that’s Grace Child.”
    “What?” Shocked, Evelina looked at the corpse again, this time seeing past the dreadful wounds. Gingerly, she pushed back the lock of hair that had fallen over the top part of the face. She hadn’t recognized Grace out of her maid’s uniform and away from the pots and pans.
No wonder Maisie and Dora were so upset
.
    And death had made a strange mask of the features, robbing them of expression. The hazel eyes were mere slits, the mouth slack, the cheeks splattered with blood.
She was barely more than a girl
.
    “You wouldn’t know her to look at her, would you? She was so.…” Tobias trailed off.
    Evelina said nothing, still astonished by how different the girl looked.
    “Who would do something like this? And why?” His voice had gone quiet, a thread of anger giving it a darker edge.
    “I don’t know.” Evelina shook her head. Despite the fact that she was suddenly cold enough to shiver, sweat trickled under her arms and between her breasts. She swallowedhard for the fortieth time, forcing her stomach back down her gullet. “But I think I know how they did it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Someone seized her by the throat and choked her, most likely when her back was turned. That would have made sure she didn’t cry out. Then he cut her open while she was down. You can see her hairpins have been pulled out. If I’m right, the murderer grabbed her jaw to hold her head steady.”
    Tobias went utterly still. “Bloody hell.”
    Evelina could see it in her mind’s eye—but what about what came next? Or before? “Someone must have seen who came and went from the house tonight. There has to have been a witness.”
    Tobias was silent. Then he seemed to pull himself together. His silvery gray gaze lifted to search Evelina, taking in her unbound hair and torn hem. “Are you all right? How did you come to be part of this?” He stepped into the cloakroom, coming far too close.
    “I’m fine,” she said shortly, all too aware of his nearness. “I came to see if I could help.” As if to prove it, she drew close enough to bend over the body, to touch it. She would never, ever play the vulnerable woman with Tobias. That was a trap she might never have the will to escape.
    But, oh, it was hard. The top buttons of his shirt were undone, his collar gone. She could see the smooth pale arc of his throat. Beneath the scent of brandy, she could smell coal smoke, as if he’d been standing next to a steam engine. What had he been doing? The question dissolved—one detail too many to absorb.
    He crouched next to her. He was so near, she could feel the heat of his body, and it was all she could do not to lean even closer.
And if Tobias is a fallen angel, what does that make Nick? A handsome creature of the shadow world, come to tempt me with visions of lost love?
Both men were desirable, and both were dangerous.
    “What happened to you?” He frowned at the grimy stains on her clothes.
    Evelina looked away. “What happened to
you
? You look a fright.”
    He made a noise that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Touché. Nothing happened. The commotion woke me, so I came down to see what was the matter.”
    Evelina looked up. Tobias met her eyes, as if defying her to contradict him. And yet there he stood, with the black eye and rumpled clothes, the very picture of a rake fresh from his late-night carousing. The question crept into her mind like some hideous subterranean beetle: Did he have anything to do with Grace’s death?
    No, I don’t believe it. I don’t want to
. She lowered her eyes, wondering if it would have been easier if he were