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housed the portal to Underhill. Toby had a wicked-looking cutlass in his hand and a martial gleam in his brown eyes. No one would be escaping by that route.
    All the live-in servants were sidhe—elven, brownie, pixie, or gnome, so there was no need for Aidan to hide his nature from any of them. He was even more imposing with his glamour dropped. Even Elise might have been intimidated if she hadn’t been too caught up with worry about Dina. She twisted her fingers, anxious to do something, anything, rather than sit here and wait.
    “You’ve all heard by now that Ms. Sutton’s four-year-old daughter has been abducted and that at least one Fae was involved. First of all, let me make a one-time offer.” His voice was like icy silk. “If any of you know anything about this kidnapping, anything at all, you have thirty seconds to tell me and I’ll let you live. Starting now. ” He paused and she could almost hear him mentally counting the seconds. When had he developed a tic beside his jaw?
    There was no response from the dozen or so nervous sidhe sitting around the large reading table.
    Exactly thirty seconds later, Aidan bared his teeth, his expression so violent, even Elise shivered. “Mercy is now off the table. Anyone involved in abducting my daughter is going to die. Slowly. Is that clear?”
    There were a few gulps and a couple of nods of agreement from the assembled staff.
    Aidan continued in his same smooth, frigid tone. “I’m going to go around the room. Each one of you will tell me in excruciating detail exactly what you were doing from the moment the reception ended until you were dragged in here five minutes ago. Let’s start with you, Mairead.”
    The middle-aged…gnome?…pursed her lips. “I supervised the clean-up in the ballroom.” She wrinkled her brow, as if working to remember. “Kept an eye on the hired crew to be sure they didn’t walk off with anything.” The ballroom had been set up as additional reception space for those guests who preferred not to sit outdoors. With large French doors opening into the garden, it had been a natural extension of the reception area and full of people coming and going all afternoon.
    “After that, I joined some of the other staff in the kitchen for leftovers and a chat,” Mairead continued. Ticking off her fingers, she listed five others who’d been there, including Toby, who nodded. “We played some cards, before I…ummm…retired.”
    Elise could have sworn Mairead blushed, right to the roots of her silvery hair.
    “With me,” Toby interjected, his own weathered face turning red. “She was with me all night.”
    The twitch in Aidan’s chin moved up to his lips, but he didn’t quite smile. “Thank you, Toby.” His gaze moved around the table to his housekeeper. “Bronwyn?”
    She’d been involved in the card game as well and had retired alone shortly after midnight. So had the butler, the cook and one of the security guards, who was apparently Toby’s nephew.
    One of the two maids had spent the night with the groundskeeper, the other had gone out with a wedding guest—she’d just walked in the door when Wallis had pulled her into the library. The young elf trembled visibly, as if she knew how bad the situation looked. “I left with the band.”
    “I saw her at the bar with them afterward.” Greg cast her a reassuring wink. “She was pretty busy with the guitar player and the drummer. They didn’t leave until closing time. I doubt she had time to get up to anything else.”
    The other two security guards had been on duty, which accounted for everyone—not that their stories could be verified, at least the ones who’d been asleep alone when the kidnapping had occurred.
    “Very well.” Aidan nodded crisply. “The house is on full lockdown until further notice. Nobody in, nobody out without my express permission. Mairead, cancel all my appointments for the next several days. Wallis, Toby, stay. Security—you know the lockdown