Everything horrible that had happened in the last weeks was his fault. Like Axia, he had no doubt that Perkin Maidenhall was now on his way to the Teversham estate with an army of men. And now, because of Tode, Axia’s bit of freedom was to be over. A vision of Axia chained inside one of the Maidenhall wagons danced in front of his eyes, and it was a moment before he could clear them. And not only Axia was in danger, but what would happen to Frances at the hands of the kidnappers? At this moment Jamie was tearing the estate apart to find anyone who had seen or heard anything that would give him a clue as to who had taken Frances. So far, there had been nothing. Axia was in her room, where Jamie had set her to drawing pictures of Frances that he could send with messengers around the near countryside to ask if anyone had seen her. Axia drew one picture after another, each of them an excellent likeness of Frances. But Tode, while concerned for Frances, found his thoughts returning again and again to the end of Axia’s freedom.
