Jade crawled into the tight space between the wall of the house and the manicured shrubs along it, trying to cause as little rustling as possible. She pushed through long branches that caught in her hair and pointed leaves that hung on her clothes until she’d delved deep enough behind the shrubbery. She fell flat on her stomach and waited, adrenaline rushing through her body.
The sound of the door opening met Jade’s ears before a young woman came partially into view, obscured through the leaves. Jade couldn’t make out details, but the glimpses she caught of the woman’s clothes gave Jade the impression she was a maid. She carried a bundle of fabric in her arms as she cast glances all around the area.
“Hello?” she called again. Jade refused to breathe until the woman left, not daring to be responsible for the movement of a single leaf. The night was still and bright, and it would be entirely too easy to give away her position.
This is taking too long. She needed to be inside, needed to find the assassin and evidence that would point the murder back to Grannam. Arthur may have been dead already, but Jade would keep going until she found the marquess and determined his current state.
Apparently giving up, the maid returned the way she came. Jade heard the outside door shut again, followed by the rippling of fabric. The maid must have been shaking out laundry and hanging it on the lines in the yard. The sound ceased after several minutes, and another door shut in the distance.
Jade waited a few moments more, listening out for anything else, before finally emerging from her hiding spot. A branch caught the skin of her cheek and drew a long scratch. Jade swallowed her yelp, bringing her hand to her face and checking the wound. A smattering of blood covered her gloved fingertips, and Jade wiped it away on the grass at her feet.Great. Now she’d have to come up with some clever explanation for the cut on her cheek.
Going in through the staff entrance was a less desirable option now, considering the staff was still clearly about, so Jade changed course. She made for the dark windows on the first level, pushing them to see if any were left unlocked.
Jade hopped from window to window, skipping over illuminated ones, and finding all the dark ones locked. Not exactly a surprise, but she’d thought she’d check. But it meant she needed an alternative point of entry.
Nothing about the manor allowed for an easy route to climb up the side of the house, and there was no guarantee any of those windows were unlocked either. But Jade had to locate the assassin, and she would start inside.
Jade returned to the brick wall surrounding the staff yard and retrieved the folded grappling hook cinched to her belt. She popped it open and flung it up toward the wall, scaling the side until she stood atop it.
There were no ledges or balconies along the wall on this side of the house, so Jade aimed the grappling hook toward the roof and threw with all her might.
The hook found purchase. Jade tugged at the rope a few times to ensure it was secured, then she lifted her feet to the brick and started to scale the wall of the manor.
She used all her strength to pull herself up, thankful for her hours of training to build her muscles and for her slight frame as well. Jade was up the wall in less than a minute, pulling herself over the edge of the roof and returning the grappling hook to her belt. It was flatter on the edges and then sloped up steeply. Jade crouched, keeping her center of gravity low, as she hurried along the less sloped edge of the roof.
There was no guarantee that she was on the right path. In truth, she was just following a hunch that this was where she needed to be, and her instincts rarely steered her wrong.
Jade skirted the edge of the roof to reach a dormer window, wishing beyond hope that she’d find one unlocked. The first dark window did not give way, but when Jade turned toward the next one, she froze. Her feet nearly tangled underneath each other with the abrupt stop, almost sending her plummeting to the ground below.
A dark figure crouched on the opposite side of the roof, obscured by a hood and cloak. Jade didn’t have to question who he was. The assassin. The same one she’d followed after Count Aubergine’s murder.
And he had spotted her.
Seconds ticked by as Jade and the assassin stared each other down, neither moving. In the darkness and with the addition of his hood, Jade could once again make out nothing about the man’s features to even remotely identify him. She had to get close to him. She had to follow him. She would make sure he didn’t get away from her this time.
The assassin must have read her mind, breaking from his position and moving down the roof’s edge.
Jade followed him, desperate not to lose him this time. She couldn’t let this killer get away, not again.
He turned and climbed up the steep part of the roof. Jade passed another dormer and climbed on top of it, using it to propel herself up the slope. The assassin crested the top and disappeared on the other side, but Jade was quick, pulling herself over the edge and pressing her stomach against the warm shingles to shimmy down.
Glancing over her shoulder, Jade spotted the assassin as he reached the flatter edge and tried to make a break for it. Her feet landed on a dormer, and she used the moment with support under her to reach for the pistol at her side. She wouldnotlose him this time.
Jade grasped the metal and wood grip in her hand, pulling it from her holster and aiming. She only needed to injure him, to catch him in the foot or arm to slow him down, but he was a blur with his cloak rippling behind him. Not to mention, a shot would alert everyone in the house that something was happening outside.
Jade changed her mind in a split second, returning the gun to its holster and moving again. Her feet struggled to find traction on the sloping shingles as gravity pulled her down. She half-stepped, half-slid down to the flatter edge, where she picked up her pace after the assassin. He turned a corner, disappearing from view behind a chimney. The seconds she’d wasted pulling out her pistol might have cost her catching this man.
She rounded the corner of the chimney and caught a glimpse of the assassin’s hood as it dipped below the line of the roof. Jade ran as fast as shecould in her crouch while finding her footing with each step. By the time she reached the spot where she’d last seen him, he was on the ground, leaving a drainpipe behind.
Jade kneeled on the roof and pulled a knife from her boot. Throwing a knife was quieter than a gunshot.
She positioned the knife in her palm to throw and launched it. The knife whirred through the air as it flipped, then it caught the tail of the assassin’s cloak, pinning it to the ground.
It wasn’t much, but she would take it. Jade flipped around and lowered a foot to the drainpipe, her back to the assassin. The sound of fabric ripping was enough to tell her he’d torn free from the knife. But it had slowed him down, if only a little, and she needed every second she could get.
Jade started the climb down the drainpipe from the roof’s edge, searching for the bars connecting the pipe to the wall with her toes. She threw her head over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the assassin to determine the direction in which he fled. If she got down the pipe fast enough, she might be able to catch him.
Her toes reached for another bar as she faced the wall again, but the movement of her torso shifted her off balance. Not enough of her boot was solidly on the bar, and when she put her weight into her foot, it slipped off the rung and her body fell.
