AURELIA MARLOWE

My heart slammed against my ribs so violently that I was certain he could hear it.

I turned slowly, my fingers tightening around my cane until the handle bit into my palm. I had not heard him come down the stairs. Not a creak, not a breath, nothing at all, and that frightened me more than his voice did. Somewhere in front of me stood a man who could move through this house in perfect silence, and I had no way of knowing what his face was doing, whether he was smiling or furious or simply toying with me the way a cat toys with a mouse it...