“Yes, Mr. Barker,” she responded coolly. “I turned all my scientific knowledge to the singular feminine goal of making pretty flowers.” She turned back toward Simon, who covered his amusement with a gentle cough. “I wanted to apply the process to increase crop size to feed more people. Alas, the plants were too fragile and fell to dust. And the fragrance of the rose was dreadfully poisonous. I lost several songbirds unfortunately.”
A horrid inhuman squeal broke the night, followed by a terrible howl.
“Aethelred!” Kate sprinted for the French windows at the rear of the room.
The doors were hardly open when Simon took her upper arm in a rough hand. “Stay here.”
As soon as he released her and started into the dark, she was on his heels. “Aethelred!” Her shout elicited an annoyed glance from Simon.
He gave Nick a few quick hand signals, and the shorter man took off in another direction through the shadowy garden.
“Is it too much to hope that Aethelred turned up a badger?” Kate asked without conviction.
“It didn’t sound like a badger to me.” Simon pulled a small pistol from his jacket and handed it to Kate. “That weapon is loaded and primed, so be careful.”
She welcomed the heft of wood and iron in her hand. “Nor did it sound like a werewolf.”
“Stay close to me.”
They started off along the path between high shrubs. Faint starlight cast the garden in deep shadows and dappled the weird landscape. Kate’s heart pounded and she listened hopefully for the sound of her dog’s panting or thudding paws approaching. A frigid breeze rustled the branches around them. Their feet squished on the worn grass path. Simon kept his left hand back, maintaining contact with Kate’s arm. Despite herself, she found the gesture comforting and welcome.
They reached a break in the high topiary and Kate heard a soft whine. She slipped through the gap into a grassy court. A large, dark shape lay before her.
“Aethelred.” She ran and knelt beside the dog. The hound tried to lift his head and his heavy tail thumped once on the ground. She lowered her hand toward his furry neck.
“No!” Simon pulled her hand away. “Don’t touch him.”
Kate angrily jerked free. “He’s hurt. He needs help.”
“I know.” Simon dropped to one knee next to her with a solicitous move toward the dog. “But you will need help yourself if you aren’t careful. Look here.”
He indicated the hound’s shoulder and, in the dark, Kate saw that the fur was matted wet. She didn’t smell blood, but there was a strong musty, loamy stench. Then she spotted a long thread-thin spine sticking out of the dog’s neck, wavering with each heaving pant. She squinted at it. “What is that?”
“A quill of some sort.”
“A porcupine? Here?”
“Nothing so blasé, I fear.”
Kate had to restrain herself again from touching her beloved dog. “He won’t die, will he?”
“I hope not.”
“Simon! Look out!”
Kate barely had time to flinch at Nick’s alarm before she saw a shape charge into the starlight from the shadow of a nearby yew. It was vaguely human, but hunched, pale white and glistening. It ran with a strange, gangly motion, and Kate had the sense of great bulbous eyes that twisted in many directions and finally settled on her. Its flesh twitched. She reached to pull back the hammer on the pistol, but Simon bore her to the damp ground under his weight.
Nick yelled as he ran past, “You all right, old boy?”
“I am,” Simon shouted, eyes locked on Kate. “Miss Anstruther, are you hit?”
“Hit?”
Simon grabbed her and bent her forward, touching the back of her neck and pushing roughly through her hair. His actions startled her. He ran his hands over Kate’s shoulders and torso.
“Mr. Archer!” Kate pulled away. “I would’ve thought you knew my policy on that.”
“Be still! I’m checking for quills.”
“I can check my own chest for quills, thank you.”
“I don’t know what it was. We should return to the house now.”
“What about Aethelred?”
“There is little we can do for Aethelred at the moment. I prefer to move you to safety.”
She was surprised by his coldness. “Will you not help your friend then?”
“Miss Anstruther, that creature was the source of the quills which struck your dog.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I have two of them in my back.” He twisted to show a pair of filamentous spines quivering in his formal jacket. “And I fear I will be quite paralyzed in a few minutes and completely unable to help you. Shall we move inside?”
Galvanized now, Kate pulled Simon to his feet, and he pressed heavily against her as they staggered back to the garden path. He was stiff-legged by the time they entered the laboratory. As soon as they were inside, he fell sideways onto a leather sofa and lay motionless, eyes open, chest rising and falling shallowly.