Chapter 11“What are we to do? What are we to do?”
Paolina found herself saying the words beneath her breath until finally they seemed to burst from her lips and be spoken aloud.
“It was not my fault, Excellency,” Alberto was crying passionately, his hands gesticulating with every word he uttered. “I had locked everything up. I went downstairs to have supper and it was only when the meal was finished that I thought I heard a strange sound in the courtyard outside. I looked out and saw a man clambering down from your window and over the wall into the alley. Look, there are his marks on the ledge.”
Alberto pointed dramatically and then went on,
“I ran out. It was too late to stop him. But, as he swung his leg over the top of the wall, he turned and looked down at me. He was not masked and
