We didn’t stay long at the villa once we had paid our respects to Sam’s aunt. Hal seemed to have little difficulty finding the way up into the higher hills from Serafina’s directions, though it had all sounded rather vague to me. So we arrived more quickly than I had anticipated, or indeed hoped for.
Hal dismounted. ‘We’d better find the factor. He’ll be in the lodge, I imagine.’
I glanced round at the cluster of outbuildings, wondering which one held our captive. My belly clenched at the thought of what was about to be done and my part in it, for if the factor was to be the hands, then I would be the voice he heard translating for Hal.
I followed him along a dusty track to the rustic building and into a large, stone-walled hall, its ceiling arched with blackened beams, the table runnin
