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eyes were glittering with moisture. “Mr. Boatin was to be trusted, but not I, Julius’s mother . I see. He has been here, so close, but I was not allowed to see him, nor to hold my most precious child? Why would you do such a thing to me?” She swallowed and cleared her throat, choking back her emotion.
    “He wanted to see you. He begged to be allowed, but it was I who refused to allow it after poor Fanny’s death. Blame me .”
    Her tone tart, she said, “I do blame you!”
    “I thought you would prefer to forgo the ecstasy of reunion,” he said, with a sarcastic edge to his voice, “for the more valuable benefit of having him cleared of any wrongdoing.”
    “How could you think I would endanger him? By speaking with him? By hugging him to my heart?”
    “No, my lady, but you have an unfortunate habit of speaking to your maid, Therese. As trustworthy as she is, I still could not risk it. I will not imperil Julius, not even for you.”
    “And so after that awful night,” the marchioness said, “when Hiram died and I must suppose Julius disappeared, you just left Darkefell Castle, to follow that poison-faced spinster Lady Anne to Cornwall for a fortnight? Was that what you owed to your mother and your twin?”
    He had no answer. How could he explain it? Hiram Grover was dead he had thought . Julius had disappeared; Julius was always feckless and a wanderer. It had seemed just another freak on his brother’s part. “I had an obligation to go to Theophilus Grover, to tell him of his father’s fate.”
    “Theo, yes,” she acknowledged, nodding. “I know you had to tell him about his father, but there was no reason to follow Lady Anne to Cornwall. None at all.”
    She saw no merit in Lady Anne Addison and he would not attempt to justify his behavior to anyone, even his mother. The tormented love he felt for Anne was still a raw, new emotion, but that was not the kind of thing he could tell his mother.
    Darkefell shrugged. “Julius had talked about going back to Upper Canada. I thought maybe he had done so without telling anyone. What good would it do to tell you that Julius had been here?”
    He pondered Lady Anne’s missive. It was almost identical to his mother’s letter and the one Osei had received. If the letters meant what he thought and Julius had headed toward Kent, that brought back the question once more: Why? What was he thinking?
    “Still, none of that explains why you then went on to Cornwall,” Lady Darkefell said, sourly, “to involve yourself in more of Lady Anne’s nonsense.”
    He didn’t answer. Two such ladies, both headstrong and independent, would never agree, though Lady Anne seemed unperturbed by Lady Darkefell’s dislike. His mother was no kinder to mild-as-milk Lydia than to acid-tongued Anne.
    The current puzzle was too compelling to stray from. Why had Julius disappeared the very night of Hiram Grover’s “death,” only to show up in Kent? It was Julius who had stepped in when Hiram Grover attacked Anne, giving Tony enough time to come to her rescue ultimately. Julius and Atim , that is, for the wolf dog from the colonies, and the “wolf” seen by the spooked populace while rumors of a werewolf plagued Darkefell Castle, were one and the same. The man and animal together had had a part in rescuing Anne.
    But the minute Hiram Grover disappeared over the waterfall, Julius had disappeared, too. Grover’s body had never been found. Was Hiram Grover alive? And had Julius followed him that night?
    The only connection among Julius, Hiram Grover, and Kent was Anne. Anne, who had ferreted out enough information to prove that Grover had killed the poor maid, Cecilia Wainwright. Anne, whom Grover likely blamed for his ultimate downfall. If Grover had headed to Anne’s home in Kent and Julius had followed, that would explain everything.
    He pushed up from the chair. “I’m going to Kent, Mother, to find Julius.”
    “And so am I,” she said, rising.
    “You must not!” he