Cecilia sighed and shook her head. They entered the secret garden.

Cilla’s garden was the literal heart of Northangerland Abbey—and the psychological one too, judging from its dark, dripping tangle of overgrowth. The shadows were clammy, the walls black with mold. From somewhere among the dead roses, an owl hooted. Or perhaps it was the ghost of a long-lost arborist, drifting mournfully through his ruined heaven. The pirates shivered.

“Alas, your mother would surely be heartbroken to see this,” Frederick whispered to Cecilia.

“Why?” Cecilia asked. “It looks exactly as I remember it.”

“Oh.”

The houses of the Wisteria Society loomed silently about them. They had been crammed in however they could fit: some angled against a wall, others piled three deep. Darlington House sat like a throned queen atop Millie the Monster’s cottage.

Ned stated the obvious. “We’re going to have to climb.”

“I don’t think I can,” Jane admitted, growing pale as she eyed the heights.

“I shall remain here with you, dear maiden, and protect you with my very life,” Frederick declared, his own face so white he looked like one of Pleasance’s ghosts.

“That house is on the ground.” Ned pointed to a narrow four-story Georgian town house with pink lavender growing in its window boxes.

“I’ll take it,” Jane said promptly.

“I’ll accompany you,” Frederick added. “A lady should never be alone in this dangerous world.”

“Excellent!” Ned slapped Frederick on the shoulder. Frederick winced. “Good luck to you both.”

Jane and Frederick hurried off. Ned turned to ask Cecilia if she needed assistance, but she had vanished. He looked around urgently and saw the door to Millie’s house was ajar. He ran through the cozy little rooms, calling her name in a loud whisper, nearly leaping out of his skin when she reappeared suddenly carrying a ladder.

He pressed a hand against his hard-beating heart. “You shouldn’t keep going off like that without telling people.”

“Why not?” She frowned with confusion.

“Because people care about you. They worry when you disappear.”

Her confusion deepened. Ned sighed, and without further word he took up one end of the ladder and helped her carry it from the house.

“Where are Jane and Freddy?” she asked as they emerged into the garden.

“Why, are you worried about them?” Ned replied facetiously.

“No. I’m merely in a hurry to be getting aloft.”

“They found a house they didn’t have to climb into.” As he spoke, the town house began to shudder and rise. It scraped against a villa, and lavender buds fluttered gently through the garden.

“Freddy went with Jane?” Cecilia said. “Finally, some good fortune.”

“So you don’t want to marry him, then?” Ned asked as they extended the ladder and propped it against the cottage wall.

“I don’t want to marry anyone.”

“But what would Lady Victoria do without her Lord Albert?”

“Employ a Scottish gillie. You go up first.”

“I should go beneath you in case you fall.”