Free Quicksilver by Amanda Quick Page B

that guarded the tiny garden. They went up the back steps. Owen inserted the lock pick into the kitchen door. The lock gave way immediately.
    “May I ask where one buys that sort of tool?” Virginia asked.
    He smiled a little at the bright curiosity in her voice.
    “This particular pick was crafted by one of my uncles. He has a knack for that sort of thing.”
    “Yours is an interesting family, sir.”
    “That is certainly one way to describe my relatives.” He opened the door and listened for a moment with all of his senses. “Still vacant.”
    Virginia moved past him to enter the house. He heard the soft, sultry swish of the ruffles at the hem of her gown as they brushed across the toe of his boot. Her scent briefly clouded his mind. He was aroused not just by the anticipation of the hunt but by the woman who shared it with him tonight.
    He followed her into the narrow hall, closed the door and turned up the lantern he had brought along. The light did little to alleviate the heavy gloom.
    “Death always affects a house, doesn’t it?” Virginia looked around. “One can sense it in the atmosphere.”
    “Yes. Which is why so many people find it easy to believe in ghosts.”
    “What, exactly, are we looking for?” she asked.
    “Something, anything, that will give us a clue to how Mrs. Ratford was killed. I went through this house, and Mrs. Hackett’s as well, shortly after I accepted the case. I am certain that both deaths were caused by paranormal means, but I do not think the killer was present at the time of the actual murders. He has come and gone on several occasions since the murders, however.”
    “You can detect those sorts of details so plainly?”
    “It is the nature of my talent, Virginia,” he said, willing her to understand and accept the compulsion that drove him.
    Virginia said nothing. She halted in the doorway of the small parlor. “There is a mirror over the fireplace. I may be able to discern something in the glass.”
    Owen stood behind her and waited. The light of the lantern flashed on the mirror, casting ominous shadows around the room.
    Virginia walked forward and stopped in front of the fireplace. Her eyes met his in the darkly silvered glass. He felt the atmosphere heat and knew that she had raised her talent.
    She turned her full attention on the mirror, gazing into it as though into another dimension. She concentrated intently, not speaking for a time.
    A moment later she lowered her talent and turned to face him with eyes that were still filled with mysteries.
    “The mirror has been hanging above the fireplace for a very long time,” she said. “There are certainly shadows in it but nothing distinct. Certainly nothing of violent death.”
    “That makes sense. The body was found upstairs in a bedroom. There is a mirror on the dressing table.”
    They went back out into the hall and up the narrow staircase.
    “I noticed that the mirror over your own mantel is new,” he said.
    “I purchased it when I rented the house. There was an old one in that room and another in the front hall. I removed both of them.”
    “You do not like old mirrors?”
    “Looking glasses absorb energy over the years. The old ones hold a lot of shadows. I find them disturbing.”
    “Yet Mrs. Ratford kept the old one in this house.”
    “Perhaps she could not afford to replace it. It is also possible that it did not bother her greatly. She had some talent, but she was not a very strong glass-reader. Only powerful glasslight-talents find old mirrors disturbing.”
    At the top of the stairs they paused. The light of the lantern revealed three doors. Two stood open. The one at the far end of the hall was closed.
    “That is the room where she died,” Owen said.
    They both heard the muffled scraping, clanking noise at the same time. It came from the nearest open doorway.
    “What in the name of heaven?” Virginia whispered.
    Owen angled the lantern for a closer look. An elegantly made mechanical dragon