She was dressed all in black and there was a little dog at her feet, which, like her hands, looked impossibly thin and narrow. 'She has cruel hands,' Magnus said. 'They're like spikes.'
Sam, Floss and their foster brother, Manus, are sent to Bisham Abbey to spend the summer holidays with their mysterious Cousin Maude. When Magnus is woken by the sound of a woman crying, he is drawn to the sixteenth-century portrait of Lady Alice Neale.
But the lady has vanished, leaving only an empty frame.
