Page 15 of Black Widow

Too restless to retire to her room, she made her way to her private parlor. She crossed the room to open the windows, still humming the tune of tonight’swaltz.

That’sodd.

Amelia straightened, examining the glass panes of the open casement. She traced her finger over the surface. Though the house was relatively new, the glass in the panes looked different from when she’d seen them last. Now it had waves and ripples in it, the kind found in the windows of much older manorhouses.

It was as if the glass had melted somehow. Amelia frowned. In her father’s old texts, she’d read that glass was melted sand, and though it appeared solid, it still had some of the attributes of a liquid. Over prolonged periods of time, glass revealed its liquid nature, by warping and running…except this morning, the glass had been clear. This house was only about a decade old. Nor had the window glass been exposed to afire.

Perhaps she had drunk too much champagne at the ball. Rubbing her head, she debated on ringing for tea, but the hour was late and the staff had all gone to sleep. Instead, she pulled a favorite novel off a nearby shelf and settled on her settee toread.

It was all a pretense, however. Amelia could not even be honest with herself. All she wanted was to close her eyes and pretend she was still dancing with Gideon. Perhaps if she relived that moment in her mind she could create an imprint of the sensation, a treasured memory she could take out and examine when she was in herdotage.

Absently, she reached out to set the book on the adjoining table, laughing over her own clumsiness when the book tumbled to the floor. She bent and picked it up, frowning as she set it on the woodensurface.

Someone had moved the table.No. Someone had moved her settee. It was no longer in the same alignment with thefireplace.

Amelia stood and examined the furniture. There were no marks in the rug showing the settee had been moved. Which meant the rug had been moved as well. The Aubusson carpet was quite large, extending more than half the length of the room. It would have taken several servants to shiftit.

She pivoted on her heel, taking in the whole room. It wasn’t just the settee or the carpet. Her desk, the sofa, and all the end tables had also been moved. Even the smaller objects had shifted. Vases, books, pens. Their locations were the same in most cases, but they were now off by less than aninch.

Either the maids had been overzealous with their dusting, or…The door. The door was also in a differentplace.

Apprehension prickled her skin. How was thispossible?

It had to be her imagination. A doorway couldn’t move. But she knew the dimensions of this room like the lines of her own hand. The entrance had been several inches to the left, slightly off center from the decorative flower in the molding above. Now the edge of the doorjamb was aligned with thatflower.

Wait. The heavy shelf in the corner could not have moved. It was builtintothe wall. But her eyes did not deceive her. It, too, had been repositioned. She could see the gap next to it—and it was growing before hereyes.

Amelia inhaled sharply, trying desperately to get enough air into her lungs. The room was no longer static. It appeared to swell, the walls ballooning out, furniture scraping the floor as itexpanded.

She tried to scream, but no sound came out. There was no air in her lungs. Her fear was literally chokingher.

The last thing Amelia remembered was the pattern of the carpet as it rose to meet herface.

Chapter 6

“What doyou mean she’s not here?” Gideon was beyond the point of irritation. “You told me yesterday that she is always back from her afternoon calls at thishour.”

“I am very sorry, Lord Flint,” the butler said, clutching Gideon’s card. “I’m sure if Mrs. Montgomery had known you were the one who called yesterday she would have made a point of stayinghome.”

Gideon suppressed a snort. What the man meant was if he’d known Gideon was an earl, then he would have actually passed on hismessage.

“Do you know when she’ll return?” he asked, running his hand roughly through hishair.

“Um, I’m not certain.” The butler coughed. “I believe she’s supposed to be taking a turn in the park right now, but madam has been keeping unpredictable hours oflate.”

Well, if that wasn’t anunderstatement.

“I’ll be sure to give her your card as soon as she comes home,” the butler saidhelpfully.

Gideon slammed his beaver hat back on his head and turned up his collar against the drizzling rain. Was the bloody woman riding in this weather? Or was Amelia lying about her whereabouts to her ownstaff?

True the rain had only just started, but the dark clouds had been threatening to burst since before breakfast. And from what he remembered, he didn’t think Amelia was devoted enough a rider to voluntarily be out in this weather. No, if memory served him, she would rather be curled up with a book on a day likethis.

And to think Gideon had started to give her the benefit of thedoubt.

After that night he’d waltzed with her, he’d begun to think her innocent. With those bruises on her arm, he’d cast her as a victim. He’d even suspected Lord Worthing was hurting her, forcing her to do as heinstructed.

But since that night, Amelia had been out riding in the park or paying afternoon callseveryday. Every night, she attended at least two or three functions. He lost count of the number of balls and soirees he’d attended in the last week trying to run her to ground. And half the time, she hadn’t bothered to take Lord Worthing withher.

---