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the right idea to wear old clothing. I'm afraid we're all going to leave covered in dust."
    "Mrs. Moore apologizes for not cleaning up here for some time," Jack said. "I told her not to worry. The areas we do frequent are quite enough for her."
    Sylvia sneezed. "Still, it appears as if she hasn't been up here since we moved in. There are cobwebs over everything."
    I opened the curtains covering one of the three arched windows, throwing light into the room. Sylvia extinguished her lamp and settled on her knees in front of a carved wooden box. Jack found a chest of drawers to search through, and Samuel picked up a crate full of books. I opened the other curtains, but stopped as I parted the third. The air left my body in a rush.
    Jack was at my side in an instant. "What is it, Hannah?"
    I pointed out the window. Down below on the gravel drive, Tommy held open the door of a grand carriage. I recognized the escutcheon emblazoned on the side, and the man who emerged was someone I'd seen only rarely but knew even from a distance.
    Lord Wade.
    "What the bloody hell does he want?" Jack snarled.
    Sylvia and Samuel crowded about me. Sylvia's arm snaked around my waist. "Are you all right, Hannah? Do you need to sit down?" Sometimes she could be the sweetest creature in the world.
    "I'd like to go downstairs and see what he wants," I said.
    All three of them exchanged glances. "I don't know if that's a good idea," Sylvia hedged. "Let Uncle speak to him."
    "If Hannah wants to talk to him, then she should," Jack said. "I'm sure she has questions she'd like to ask."
    That was quite the understatement. If I wrote down all the questions I had for Lord Wade, I'd have a list as high as the room.
    "Will you come with me?" I asked him.
    "Of course."
    We made our way downstairs. I wish I'd worn something more appropriate than one of Sylvia's old dresses. He was an earl after all. It seemed a silly thing to worry about though.
    I heard Lord Wade's voice before I saw him. It was big and powerful, much like the man himself, and carried to us as we approached the small parlor.
    "It's been a long time, Langley," he said.
    August Langley had already told me he'd known Lord Wade from their time together in the Society For Supernatural Activity. He'd also said he'd given me to Wade when I was a baby to keep me safe from Reuben Tate. Apparently he'd not known I was kept in the attic at Windamere, not until my governess, Miss Levine, had contacted him and asked him to take me back.
    "What do you want, Wade?" Langley asked. His tone surprised me. There was no deference to the other man's superiority, no hint of the fact he'd once trusted Wade to take care of me. He spoke to Wade as if he'd done something reprehensible, which he had. He'd locked me away.
    Apparently the tone surprised Wade too. He took a moment to answer, and when he did, he sounded less blustery. "I, uh, thought you should know that she's gone." When Langley didn't answer, he added, "The girl you brought to me eighteen years ago. She just…disappeared one day."
    Jack and I had reached the door, but I put up my hand to halt him. I wanted to hear what these men had to say before we entered. It could shed some much-needed light on the subject of my past.
    "Perhaps she walked away of her own accord," Langley said.
    "Why would she do that?"
    "How would I know what goes through the mind of a young woman? Did you treat her well?"
    Wade's hesitation was telling. "I gave her everything she could possibly need, and I never raised a hand to her."
    "Which is as I'd hoped. It's why I gave her to you in the first place. You're a gentleman of integrity." Sarcasm soured the words, but it was impossible to know if Wade detected it or not. He may be oblivious since he wasn't aware that Langley knew I'd been kept in the attic.
    "We've heard nothing from her in the weeks since her disappearance," Lord Wade said. "No letters asking for money, not even a note to her friend to tell her she's all right. It's not