' Horribly disfigured,' Nell continued, ignoring Temperance's logic. Giles was enough to send the most intrepid woman running forĪnd that was without Nell's conversation. Giles rose about them-voices raised in argument, moansĪnd laughter, and now and again the odd, chilling scream. With it the smell of excrement and rotting offal. The night was black, the wind moaning eerily, bringing Still, the pistol looked dangerous, and Temperance was grateful for that. Though loaded, the pistol held but one shot,Īnd to tell the truth, she was somewhat hazy on the actual operation of the weapon. She could have broughtĪ sack to carry it in, but that would've defeated its purpose as a deterrent. The weapon was heavy enough to make her arm ache. The ancient pistol in her other hand a little tighter. They were coming to a turn in the alley, and Temperance thought she saw light up ahead. 'How would anyone know that if he's masked?' 'It's ghostlike if he's the dead spirit of a harlequin player come back to haunt the living.' 'A harlequin's motley? That doesn't sound very ghostlike.' 'He wears a black mask and a harlequin's motley

'Oh, indeed, there is.' Nell hoisted the sleeping babe in her arms higher. The cold winter night was frightening enough without the Nell had spent three years in a traveling company of actors and sometimes had a tendency Skirted a noxious puddle in the narrow alley. Giles haunts on nights like this,' Nell Jones, Temperance's maidservant, said chattily as she Giles at midnight was either very foolish or very desperate. Once upon a time, in a land long forgotten now, there lived a mighty king, feared by all and loved by none.

Wicked intentions hoyt