"Apparently. I had no idea."
"She left nearly an hour ago," Lady Huddlesford put in. "Quite wilting, she was, but she didn't want to cause any fuss, so she just slipped away."
Lucifer cursed beneath his breath. Grim-faced, Demon waved them up the rise. "We'd better get a move on."
They started up the slope. Before they reached the church, Jonas came pelting around it. He skidded to a halt. "Filing. He just went into the Manor. I saw him come up this way, then I realized he hadn't come back, so I went to check-I just glimpsed him going through the front door."
"Filing?" Demon said. "Where the hell does he fit in?"
"God knows, I'm sure," Lucifer muttered, "but I suggest we'd better go and find out. In case you haven't noticed, our simple plan has got holes shot through it."
"Never did trust plans." Demon locked his fingers about Flick's elbow as they rounded the church.
"Oi!"
They halted again. Dodswell came lumbering up from the Rectory. "Where're you off to?" He scrambled up the path to join them. "I just came to tell you that Appleby arrived and went in the back. He came through the wood. He's been inside for a good fifteen minutes or more. I had to come round by the shrubbery to stay out of sight."
Lucifer and Demon exchanged glances. "Right." Lucifer looked down the slope. "Only one thing for it-we go in and invent as we go."
He considered their assembled company. As well as himself, Phyllida, Demon and Rick, Jonas, Sir Jasper, and Dodswell, they had Lady Huddlesford, Frederick, and the Hemmingses.
"All of us go in-there's enough of us to make him feel too pressured to try anything clever, but not enough, if we all keep calm, to make him panic." He looked at Frederick and Lady Huddlesford, then at Jonas and Sir Jasper. "One thing-if you're coming down there with us, you must do nothing except what I tell you to do. At this stage, we just want to get Appleby out of the Manor and get Sweetie back without her, or anyone else, being harmed. No heroics. Agreed?"
Everyone nodded.
At the last, Lucifer met Phyllida's gaze.
"I'd never do anything to risk Sweetie."
Lucifer grasped her hand. "Naturally not." He looked at the others. "Let's go."
They reached the duck pond and saw Covey dodging through the trees. Dodswell waved him over.
"Miss Sweet came home," Covey gasped. "Before I could come to warn you, I saw Mr. Filing up by the church looking down. Then he came down, and I couldn't get out. He's gone in, too."
Lucifer nodded. "Join the crowd. We're going in to sort this out."
It wasn't quite the same as leading a charge, but with Demon at his shoulder and Phyllida and Flick at their backs, it had much the same momentum. Lucifer pushed open the
Manor gate, uncaring of its squeak. He strode up the main path and rounded the fountain-
"Stop right there!"
He halted. All the others formed up behind him.
The figure of Lucius Appleby was just visible in the shadows of the front hall. Locked before him, held captive in one arm, Sweetie in her pale gown was more easily seen. Light glinted off the blade of a knife.
"Can you see it?" Appleby asked.
"Yes." Lucifer didn't need to say anything else; his tone was enough.
"If you do exactly as I say, she won't be harmed."
"We're prepared to do that." Lucifer spoke calmly. "What do you want us to do?"
"File in, single file, slowly."
Phyllida grabbed the back of Lucifer's coat and refused to let go; Demon shot her a scowl and stepped behind her. They all followed Lucifer over the front step and into the cool of the Manor's front hall.