“What bothers you?” It wasn’t at all like Gia to bring up the subject of money.

Gia smiled sheepishly. “Don’t laugh, but you mentioned a curse that went along with the Westphalen fortune.”

“Oh, dearie,” Nellie said, relieved that that was all that concerned her, “that’s just talk!”

“You mean you made it up?”

“Not I. It was something Sir Albert was heard to mutter when he was in his dotage and in his cups.”

“Sir Albert?”

“My great-grandfather. He was the one who actually started the fortune. It’s an interesting story. Back in the middle of the last century the family was in dire financial straits of some sort—I never knew the exact nature and I guess it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that shortly after his return from India, Sir Albert found an old diagram of the cellar of Westphalen Hall, which led him to a huge cache of jewels hidden there since the Norman invasion. Westphalen Hall was saved. Most of the jewels were converted to cash, which was carefully invested and the fortune has grown steadily for a century and a quarter.”

“But what about the curse?”

“Oh, pay no attention to that! I shouldn’t even have mentioned it! Something about the Westphalen line ending ’in blood and pain,’ about ’dark things’ that would come for us. But don’t worry, my dear. So far we’ve all lived long lives and died of natural causes.”

“Gia’s face relaxed. “That’s good to know.”

“Don’t give it another thought.”

But Nellie found her own thoughts dwelling on it. The Westphalen curse… she and Grace and Teddy used to joke about it. But if some of the stories were to be believed, Sir Albert had died a frightened old man, mortally afraid of the dark. It was said he spent his last years surrounded by guard dogs, and always kept a fire going in his room, even on the hottest nights.

Nellie shivered. It had.been easy to make jokes back then when they were young and there were three of them. But Teddy was long dead of leukemia—at least he hadn’t gone “in blood and pain”; more like fading away—and Grace was who knew where? Had some “dark thing” come for her? Could there possibly be something to—

Rubbish! How can I let myself be frightened by the rantings of a crazy old man who’s been dead for a century?

Still… Grace was gone and there was no explaining that. Not yet.

As they neared Sutton Square, Nellie felt anticipation mounting within her. There had been news of Grace while she was out—she was sure of it! She hadn’t budged from the house since Tuesday for fear of missing word from Grace. But wasn’t staying in the house like watching a pot? It wouldn’t boil until you turned your back on it. Leaving the house was the same thing: Grace had probably called as soon as they left Sutton Square.

Nellie hurried up to the front door and rang the bell while Gia paid the driver. Her fists clenched of their own volition as she waited impatiently for the door to open.