She looked good enough to eat, he thought, and he was ravenously hungry.

He guided her along the corridor, intensely, almost painfully conscious of her femininity. The faint, enticing scent of her body mingled with the flowers and herbs of the soap she had used in her bath. The fragrance thrilled his senses. He reminded himself that he was too old, was too experienced and had seen too much of the dark, raw side of life to be so easily overwhelmed by a woman. But there it was. All indications were that he had been struck by lightning.

They made their way down the main hall of Wintersett House, past an office, a large reception room, more lecture halls and a library.

As far as Adam could determine, only the ground floor

had been opened to the members of the Society of Psychical Investigations. The floors above were closed to the public.

The mansion was vast, bleak and quite ugly, in his opinion. It had been designed in the Gothic style with walls of heavy stone. The rooms were vaulted in the medieval manner. Very little sunlight penetrated the interior of the big house.

Just the sort of atmosphere the members of the Society no doubt thrived on, he thought.

When they reached the front hall, he saw two gentlemen engaged in serious conversation. The shorter of the two was a man of some forty or forty-five years of age. Although he was of less than average height, he was fashioned along solid, heavy lines, not unlike the mansion. He projected an intense, scholarly air with spectacles, whiskers, a receding hairline and a rumpled coat.

The short, bespectacled man was brandishing a photo-graph beneath the aristocratic nose of an elegant, well-dressed, rather bored-looking gentleman. The taller man was endowed with the sort of statue-perfect features that never failed to attract the eyes of the ladies. His jet-black hair was highlighted by a startling streak of silver.

"The tall, distinguished gentleman is Mr. Julian Elsworth," Caroline whispered. "He is the most fashion-able practitioner of psychical powers in London at the moment. He gives occasional public demonstrations here at Wintersett House, but most of his sittings are conducted in private homes in the most exclusive circles"

She sounded far too enthusiastic about Elsworth, Adam decided.

"I've heard of him," he allowed. "We've never been introduced."

"A formal reception in his honor will be held here later this week," she said. "It will be followed by a demonstration of his abilities. There is certain to be a very large crowd."

"And the short gentleman?"

"That is Mr. Reed. He is the president of the Society for Psychical Investigations and the publisher of New Dawn."

At that moment Elsworth glanced up from the photo-graph that Reed was holding in front of him. He gave Adam a brief, considering look. Then, evidently dismissing him as unimportant, he turned to Caroline with a dazzlingly bright smile.

"Mrs. Fordyce," Elsworth said. "A pleasure to see you again."

"Mr. Elsworth." She gave him her gloved hand and then politely switched her attention to the shorter man. "Mr. Reed."

She glanced speculatively at Adam. "Allow me to present Mr.—"

"Grove," he said before she could decide what name to use. "Adam Grove."

The two men nodded politely but it was clear that Caroline was the one who interested them.

Reed's pale eyes were intense and serious behind the lenses of his eyeglasses. "Welcome back to Wintersett House. Have you returned to continue your literary re-search or have you finally decided to honor the Society with a demonstration of your own psychical powers?"

Adam tightened his grip on Caroline's arm. Psychical powers? What the deuce was this about?

Unobtrusively, she tried to free herself. He realized he was holding on to her as if she were in danger of being swept away by some invisible force. He quickly loosened his hand, but he did not release her. For some reason, everything in him was screaming at him to keep her as close as possible.

Caroline smiled politely at Reed. "As I told you the other day, sir, the item in the press was incorrect regarding several of the particulars of my demonstration at the tea party."

"But I spoke with Mrs. Hughes myself," Reed insisted. "She was very impressed by what she witnessed that day."

"Please believe me when I tell you that I do not possess any gifts that would be of interest to the researchers of the Society," Caroline said.

Reed's smile held a mix of understanding and approval. "Your natural delicacy of feeling becomes you, Mrs. Fordyce, but there is no need for alarm. I would not dream of putting you on a public stage. Rest assured that the tests would be conducted in private according to the strictest standards of science."

"I must decline," Caroline said firmly.

Elsworth raised his winged brows. "I fear you are being far too modest, madam. According to the piece in the paper you were evidently able to read the minds of several of the ladies who were fortunate enough to be present at Mrs. Hughes's tea."

^"Unfortunately, I have nothing to demonstrate to the Society," she said, more forcefully this time.

Reed nodded several times. "As you wish. I would not dream of trying to press you into doing something that would cause you discomfort." He paused and lowered his voice. "I expect you heard the tragic news of Elizabeth Delmont's death?"

^"Shocking," Caroline said.

"We here at the Society are all quite stunned." Reed shook his head. "She was a medium of great talent."

Elsworth glanced back toward the lecture hall where Irene Toller had given her demonstration. "Not everyone held that opinion."

Adam's interest in the conversation went up a notch. "Yes, we did gain that impression from Mrs. Toller a few minutes ago."

Reed grimaced. "I'm afraid there was some professional rivalry between Mrs. Toller and Mrs. Delmont. Powerful mediums are often quite jealous of each other's gifts."

"She implied that dark forces from the Other Side were responsible for Mrs. Delmont's death," Caroline said neutrally.

Elsworth looked pained. "According to the sensation press there were some peculiar elements about the murder that will no doubt sell a great many copies of the papers."

"What sort of elements?" Adam asked with what he was fairly certain sounded like idle curiosity.

Reed heaved a troubled sigh and lowered his voice. "There were reports that Delmont's séance room was turned entirely upside down as though by some powerful supernatural force. Furniture scattered about like so much kindling." He paused for effect. "They also noted that a mysterious pocket watch was found next to the body."

"What is odd about a pocket watch?" Adam asked.

"According to the correspondent, the watch was broken," Elsworth explained, "most likely at the time of the murder. The hands were stopped at twelve o'clock." He smiled humorlessly. "Midnight is often viewed as a particularly significant hour in the world of psychical research, you know"

"Some feel that it is the time of the night when the veil between this world and the Other Side is most easily breached," Reed added with a somber, knowledgeable bob of his head. "It is all extremely disturbing."

Caroline glanced at the picture in his hand. "I see you have a photograph."

"Yes, indeed." Reed brightened and held it up for her to view. "I was just showing it to Elsworth here."

Caroline leaned closer for a better look. "It is very intriguing."

Adam studied the picture over her shoulder. The subject was an attractive young lady seated on a straight-backed chair. An amorphous, ghostly image of another woman appeared to hover in the air behind the head of the sitter.

"It was taken by a member of the Society," Reed explained enthusiastically. "The medium is apparently able to cause manifestations to appear."