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let alone her clothes. The gowns she had brought with her to Arcane House were her best.
    “Mr. Jones, what is going on here? Surely you are overreacting. If you alert the servants they will be able to make certain that those housebreakers do not get inside.”
    “I doubt very much that those two are ordinary, garden-variety thieves.” Gabriel paused beside the desk and gripped the velvet bell pull. He gave it three short, sharp tugs. “That will alert the servants. They have their instructions for this sort of emergency.”
    He opened the bottom drawer of the desk and reached inside. When he straightened Venetia saw that he held a pistol in his hand.
    “Follow me,” he ordered. “I will see you safely out of here and then I will deal with the intruders.”
    A hundred questions leaped to mind but there was no ignoring the unequivocal air of command. Whatever was going on here, Gabriel obviously believed that it amounted to more than a common house burglary.
    She grabbed fistfuls of her heavy skirts and hurried after him. She assumed that they would make for the door that opened onto the long, central hall. But to her amazement, Gabriel went to a classical statue of a Greek god that stood near a bookcase and moved one of the stone arms.
    The muffled groan of heavy hinges emanated from somewhere inside the wall. A section of the wooden paneling swung ponderously outward to reveal a narrow staircase. She could see only the first few steps. The rest plunged downward into darkness.
    Gabriel hoisted a lantern that had been left at the top of the staircase and struck a light. The yellow glare of the lamp spilled into the pool of midnight below the steps. I le waited until she had stepped gingerly onto the top step before pulling the wall closed behind them.
    “Have a care,” Gabriel said, starting down into the depths. “These steps are very old. They date back to the most ancient portion of the abbey.”
    “Where do they lead?”
    “To a concealed tunnel that once served the abbey as an escape route in the event of attack,” he said.
    “What makes you think that those two intruders are more than ordinary ruffians?”
    “Very few people outside the members of the society are even aware that Arcane House exists, let alone its precise location. You will recall that you were driven here at night in a closed carriage. Could you find your way back again?”
    “No,” she admitted.
    “When visitors are brought to Arcane House they always arrive in a similar manner. Yet those two villains obviously know where they are going and what they are about. Therefore I must assume that they are more than simple burglars who happened to stumble upon a likely looking household to rob.”
    “I take your point.”
    Gabriel reached the bottom of the steps. Venetia barely avoided stumbling into him.
    The flaring lantern light illuminated a stone-walled corridor. The smell of damp earth and decayed vegetation was heavy. There was an unpleasant rustling and skittering at the edges of the shadows. The light gleamed briefly on small, malevolent eyes.
    Rats, Venetia thought. Just the added touch needed to complete the scene of gothic horror. She raised her skirts a little higher so that she could see precisely where she was putting her feet.
    “This way,” Gabriel ordered.
    She followed him along the low, vaulted tunnel, running to keep up with him. Gabriel had to keep his head low to avoid a nasty encounter with the unyielding stone.
    A fresh wave of unease washed across her senses. The passageway seemed to constrict around her. She fought the panic, forcing herself to concentrate on following Gabriel.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “It is very close in here,” she said tightly.
    “Not much farther,” he promised.
    She could not answer. She was too busy managing her skirts and the shifting weight of the small bustle that threatened to unbalance her.
    The tunnel twisted and turned several times. Just when she was sure that she