“Emma!” Neil hissed. “You’ll wake—”
A light flared from the adjoining room. A moment later, the door opened.
It was not Jenny who appeared in the doorway, but Miss Winter.
Her hair was unbound, falling loosely around her shoulders, and her thin robe hung hastily tied over her nightdress. In one hand, she held a candlestick like a weapon, though she dropped it the instant she saw him.
“Your Grace,” she gasped. “I thought—goodness, I thought it was an intruder.”
She pulled her robe a little more securely around her shoulders. Neil swallowed, finding that his throat was dry.
“Emma crept down to my study,” he managed. “I was bringing her back. Where is Jenny?”
Miss Winter flushed. “Jenny’s parents are unwell. She often spends the night with them, so I stay here when she’s away.”She hesitated, then added, “I hope I haven’t done wrong in not mentioning it.”
“There’s no harm in it,” he said at once. “Though Emma seems determined not to go back to bed.”
“There’s a monster!” Emma wailed.
Miss Winter smiled faintly and knelt beside the child, brushing a curl from her forehead. “Then I shall look under the bed myself, and stay until you’re asleep.”
The reassurance seemed to calm her, and Emma climbed obediently back beneath the covers. Neil lit a candle and placed it beside the bed, feeling rather pleased with himself—until Miss Winter frowned.
“We’ll need to blow out the candle before we leave her,” she whispered.
“Why? Won’t the light comfort her?”
“It would,” she conceded, “But Emma tosses and turns in her sleep. If she knocks over the candle, it might set fire to the curtains, or even to her bedclothes.”
That thought chilled Neil’s blood. He bit his lip, shaking his head.
“Of course, of course. I can’t think why I didn’t realise that.”
Miss Winter looked up at him, lips gently pursed. She was crouched beside the bed where Emma lay restlessly, the child’s small fingers twisting the bedclothes between them.
This is the moment she tells me she can manage alone,he thought grimly.A polite dismissal. I am quite unnecessary—even here, in my own house, even to comfort my own niece.
“Do sit down, your Grace,” Miss Winter said softly, patting the end of the bed where Emma’s feet lay. “We shall put Miss Emma to sleep together.”
He hadn’t expected that. Neil blinked, missing a beat. “Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” she said with a small laugh. “I can never manage it half so well as Jenny.”
“When Jenny’s here,” Emma murmured sleepily, “the monster never comes. She frightens it away.” She paused, glancing up at her uncle. “Uncle, you were going to say something about the monster earlier. You asked me if I knew the truth about monsters under the bed—and spiders.”
“Thisdoessound intriguing,” Miss Winter remarked, her lips curving.
Emma sighed. “He’s only going to tell me that they don’t exist, and so I shouldn’t be afraid.”
“Ah, but that isn’t what I meant to say at all,” Neil said gravely. “Therearemonsters under the bed.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “Undermybed?”
He nodded solemnly. “Indeed. But do you know why they’re there?”
“To eat me?”
“If that were so,” he said softly, “they would have done it long ago. You’re seven years old, and they’ve had plenty of nights to do their worst. But they haven’t. Do you know why?”
