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Probably one of the local village girls taken on for the week. With so many guests in the house, extra maids are required.”
    “I see.” There was nothing unusual about the collection of items on the night table, Lavinia thought. She saw a candlestick, a pair of spectacles, and a ring.
    She went to the wardrobe and opened it. Tobias came to stand behind her with the candle. Together they surveyed the array of expensively cut garments.
    “I want to speak with the blond maid.” Tobias opened the drawers of the wardrobe, glancing briefly at carefully folded handkerchiefs and small clothes. “Will you ask your butler to locate her, sir?”
    “If you feel it is necessary.” Beaumont took a step back and then hesitated uncertainly. “What is it that concerns you about this situation, March?”
    “I would like to find out if Fullerton was still in the company of the maid when he fell to his death.” Tobias turned away from the wardrobe and went to the night table. He stood looking down at the objects on the surface. “Perhaps she can describe precisely what occurred.”
    “Very well, I shall go and have a word with Drum.” Beaumont swung around and disappeared down the hall, seemingly relieved to have another clear goal.
    Lavinia opened a trunk and looked inside. It was empty. All of the items that had been packed in it were no doubt hanging in the wardrobe. She closed the lid and looked at Tobias, who was in the process of going down on one knee to peer beneath the bed.
    She saw his jaw tighten when he shifted his weight to his left leg, but she resisted the urge to ask him if he was in pain. He did not welcome constant inquiries on the subject of the injury he had sustained in Italy a few months earlier. The wound had long since healed, but she knew it still bothered him on occasion.
    “What on earth do you expect to find under there?” she asked instead.
    “How the devil should I know?” He finished his perusal of the floorboards, grasped a bedpost, and hauled himself back to his feet. “I believe we are finished here.” He massaged his left thigh impatiently. “Now for the roof.”
    “Tobias, what is this all about? You do not think that Lord Fullerton’s death was an accident, do you?”
    For a few seconds he looked as if he intended to evade the question. Then he shrugged. “I think he was murdered.”
    “I was afraid that you had concluded as much. But what leads you to believe that?”
    “It is a long story.” He headed for the door, taking the candle with him on a small stand. “One that I do not have time to go into just now.”
    He was putting her off again, she thought. But this was not the moment to argue the point.
    “Very well, but mark you, sir, I do intend to obtain a proper explanation from you at the earliest possible opportunity.”
    She found herself speaking to thin air. Tobias was already outside in the hall, moving toward the staircase.
    She was about to follow him, but something made her glance once more around the room they had just finished searching. Her eyes went to the night table. A pale wedge of moonlight illuminated the objects on the surface. It seemed to her that something had changed in the arrangement of the items.
    In the next breath she realized what the difference was. The ring was gone.
    An uneasy sensation fluttered across her nerves. Tobias was no thief. He had taken the ring for some very good reason, one that he had chosen not to confide to her or to Beaumont.
    Her partner had been acting in an exceedingly odd manner since his conversation with Aspasia Gray.
    “I really do not care for that woman,” she said aloud to the empty room.

Chapter 5
    The servants’ floor mirrored the same scene of confusion, curiosity, and excited dread that Lavinia had seen on the lower floors. Small groups of people hovered in the narrow, low-ceilinged corridor, talking in soft voices.
    At the sight of Lavinia and Tobias, all conversation ended abruptly. Everyone turned to look