I peeked between my fingers. My spine straightened like a fox looking for the hound, but I saw nothing. No one. Then the tapping was near, just on the other side of the great wooden fence. The thing was so tall, I couldn’t see over it, though.

“Vivvi!”

I dropped to my knees on the water-soaked ground and put my eye to a knothole in the wood. Two inches from it was a striking blue eye with smile lines folding around its depths. I knew those depths.

“Richard.” I breathed out the name, and the taste of it on my lips drew all the oddness of the past weeks into sharp focus. At once my floundering soul was grounded again. “What in heaven’s name took you so long?”

“I came as soon as the chap brought your note, but they sent me away. Do you know, you aren’t allowed visitors? I even remembered to give them your false name—then I tried your real one. Still, they wouldn’t let me see you. What sort of position is this, anyway? So by Friday I figured I ought to make my own way in. Had a frightful time trying to lure you over here.”

“So that’s why no one came. I wrote Marcel as well.”

“You won’t be hearing from him, I’m afraid. He’s left for the Continent.”

“So soon? I thought that trip wasn’t until—”

“Listen, we haven’t time.” He twisted to look behind him, golden hair taking the place of his eye in the hole, then turning back. “Guards are on the grounds. Tell me what’s going on so we can get you home. The shop’s in an awful state and you have creditors looking for you.”

“I’ve no idea what’s happened, but someone’s set me up—made them think I’m mad. I tried to get away, and now they’ve admitted me.”

“You’re a patient?” I couldn’t tell if he was angry, doubtful, or annoyed. He definitely wore the I-warned-you glare he’d mastered in our childhood.

“Look, there’s something odd happening here. Notes. Music. A patient they claimed was never here has vanished, even though her stay had been paid for.”

“Vanished. You mean, kidnapped? Run away?”

“I have no idea.” I blew out a breath and laid everything on the table. “Father had a ward, someone at Hurstwell, and now she’s passed to me, only no one knows where she is. The office claims she was never here, and they know nothing. They only know how to charge for her keep, apparently. Father has been paying her way at Hurstwell for years.”

“Who is she?”

“I’m not sure, exactly.”

His stare was steady. “You’re certain she’s real? Perhaps he’s been scammed into paying for some made-up relation.”