At first it seemed no more than a chance encounter – and Nicky Horn, running for his life from a savage man’s vengeance, couldn’t afford to question Robert McKendrick’s motives for helping him.

But when there was time to think he could make no sense of it – a wealthy man risking his life to help a pariah. McKendrick’s daughter Beth didn’t understand it either; but then she had her own reasons to despise the young man with blood on his face and blood on his hands.

He should have walked away, leaving the puzzle unsolved.  By the time he knew that, though, it was too late – a killer was stalking the grounds of the mediaeval pile that was the McKendricks’ home, and while Horn would have taken his chances running the gauntlet McKendrick wouldn’t let him.  Almost as if he were a prisoner here…