a little later, Ariel had to answer it herself. As soon as she opened the door, her eyes were drawn upward. She had forgotten how large he was, she thought, standing back to let Lord Alan Gresham enter. His coat and breeches were of plain dark cloth and his shirtfront unadorned, and his height and broad shoulders seemed to fill the entryway. Or perhaps it was his air of assurance and command, she thought. Were the sons of dukes born with it? A shaft of sunlight from outside drew red-gold glints from his deep auburn hair, which curled a little despite being cropped close to his head. His blue eyes held an intensity and intelligence such as Ariel had never seen before, and there was steely determination in the set of his square jaw. Momentarily, something seemed to flutter deep inside Ariel. She had never been alone with a man in her life. First her mother, then her schoolmistresses, had seen to that. She was very glad it was a warm day and he had no cloak for her to take. She had a dreadful suspicion that her hands might be shaking. Stuff and nonsense, she told herself severely, and raised her chin.
“This is an old house,” he commented, looking at the paneling and the intricate carving of the stair banister. “Seventeenth century, isn’t it?”
Ariel nodded. The house, which was the only home she had ever known, was tall and narrow, with a twisting staircase up through the four floors and rooms paneled with polished walnut and oak. The windows were small and mullioned; some of the floors slanted a bit alarmingly; and the ceiling was somewhat low, she noticed for the first time, as Lord Alan ducked his head under a huge beam.
“My mother loved it,” she said. “I used to think that she would have been more at home in the court of Charles the Second. She seemed like someone from another century.”
He looked slightly surprised. But he said only, “My family’s home in Kent is from the same era.”
Ariel glanced at him suspiciously. Was he patronizing her? she wondered. The country seat of the Duke of Langford must be a huge mansion, hardly to be compared with her modest house. Perhaps he was mocking her instead. Ariel’s jaw set. She was quite accustomed to snubs. She had endured years of them at her fashionable school once the other girls had discovered her parentage. Though the headmistress had been scrupulously fair, she could not prevent the girls from venting their spite in private. But they had not found her easy to despise, Ariel thought defiantly, and neither would this nobleman.
She examined him for the signs she knew so well—the subtle sneer, the haughtily raised brow, the malicious spark in the eye. But his expression was unreadable as he deftly avoided hitting his head on the low beam and started upstairs. In the upper parlor, she offered him Madeira from the tray she had set out earlier, and he accepted a small glass.
“This was Bess Harding’s house?” Lord Alan commented then.
Ariel nodded. “She left it to me.”
“It occurred to me that it might be helpful to question her servants. They may have heard something that will offer a clue to this haunting.”
“Yes,” said Ariel. She very much wanted to speak to her mother’s servants herself. She had been chagrined, and a bit hurt, to find them all gone.
“Well?”
She looked up to find that Lord Alan had raised one auburn brow.
“Perhaps you could summon them?” he added.
“Oh. The thing is…they’ve disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Well, gone away, I mean. I suppose it did not occur to them that I would be coming home, and they thought they needed new positions.” She could hear the resentment in her own voice, and she fell silent. She had been away for years, she reminded herself.
“I don’t understand.” He seemed to listen for the first time to the deep silence surrounding them. “Who is here with you?”
Warnings her mother had given her echoed in Ariel’s mind. “I’ll be hiring servants,” she said firmly. “But if you could find the old staff, I’m sure it would be very useful to—”
“You are alone in this house?” He said it as if the idea were incomprehensible.
When it finally sank in that there was no one else here, what would he do, Ariel wondered? She had to trust him. There was no one else to help her. It was impossible to meet at Carlton House or a public place. She could only