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of the Season, it will be off to Leeds with you. I am presently but one step ahead of my creditors, but they will be more than willing to hold off a little longer when they see what a lovely asset I have in your person.”
    Before Cassie could utter another protest, the orange-haired woman returned.
    “I have checked all the rooms, m’lord, like you asked. There is nothing here that I’d give two shillings for, nor yet there isn’t. Thwaite has been most thorough.”
    “Then, my pet, I think it is time for us to be off.” He started for the door where Chloe waited.
    “You are going back to London?” Whatever Cassie had expected, it had not been this calm leave-taking.
    Her brother paused at the door and looked back at her. “Surely you do not expect me to spend even one night in this rotting mausoleum, do you, my dear? I have already reserved rooms at the Red Goose, and I shall return on the morrow to make the final arrangements.”
    With that he was gone, leaving nothing behind to show that he had actually been there and that she had not merely dreamed the whole episode except the dress she was wearing, the candles burning down, and the fire crackling in the fireplace.
    In this instance Cassie found it hard to enjoy the pleasant experience of being able to see clearly since all the myriad tiny flames did was show the dismal state of abandonment and decay that had destroyed a once magnificent room. Not a single one of the many books that had formerly lined the shelves now remained, and the only furniture left in the room besides the broken sofa was a very shaky end table, which now gave precarious support to two candelabra.
    Unable to hold back a bitter thought of what the morrow would bring, Cassie moved quickly to snuff out the candles nearest her. The light her brother had enjoyed tonight would be paid for by an endless string of lost evenings, when having no candles at all would force them to retire to their beds with the setting of the sun.
    But no, there would be no more evenings here. Geoffrey was taking them to London, where the darkness would be banished by hundreds of candles—wax candles, undoubtedly, not tallow like these—and every one of them paid for by the sale of her person.
    Leaving the rest of the candles burning, she picked up one of the candelabra with a hand that trembled in spite of all her efforts to control it and went in search of her step-mother and sister. She delayed only long enough to pull the pins out of her hair and change back into her own dress, leaving the exotic gown in a silvery-blue puddle on the floor.
    She passed room after empty room on her way—rooms that once had served a purpose, rooms now stripped to the bare walls to feed her brother’s voracious appetite. And soon she herself would be a living sacrifice to his insatiable greed.
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Chapter 3
    Finally reaching the abandoned schoolroom, Cassie tapped gently on the panel that concealed the priest’s hole. “Everything is all right, Seffie. It is safe to come out now.”
    The panel slid open the merest crack—only far enough for the people hiding inside to be sure it was she, and that she was alone, but upon ascertaining this, her sister emerged and threw herself into Cassie’s arms.
    “Oh, it was awful. Some strangers came and pounded on the door, and then they broke into the house. They have been wandering around through all the rooms. We heard their footsteps. It is indeed fortunate you did not return earlier, for you would of a certainty have fallen into their clutches.”
    There was little point in relating to her sister and her stepmother what had passed between Geoffrey and herself. Ellen was totally ineffectual in any situation that called for positive action, and she had raised Seffie to be equally ineffectual. So instead, Cassie forced a smile and tried to keep her voice cheerful, hoping her step-mother would not notice anything was wrong.
    “It was no strangers, my dears, but rather Geoffrey, come home