“I’m not! But I can’t really picture Mira losing her head over anything—especially a man. I mean, good grief, where would she find one? The only men we see are the Thorns and a few instructors. And they’re hardly ever here. None of us will even remember how to talk to men by the time we go to Adoria. Mistress Masterson should bring a few around for us to practice with.”

   Adelaide was joking, but Tamsin took the words seriously. She was always watching out for opportunities. “It would be useful to interact with men more often. I’m surprised no one’s thought of it. There’ll be village men at church tomorrow. Maybe I should try talking to some of them. It might give me an extra edge.”

   “You’re obsessed with your edge,” said Adelaide.

   “At least I care.” Tamsin tossed her brilliant red hair over one shoulder. “Honestly, what good was working in a noble’s household all those years if you didn’t pick up anything useful? You should be the best of us all.”

   Adelaide grinned. “You’d smother me in my sleep if I was. This is self-preservation.”

   “Well, second best, then,” Tamsin said huffily.

   I smiled as they slipped into familiar roles and forgot about Clara. Somehow, I’d ended up rooming with both the most ambitious girl in the house and the least ambitious one. It had been obvious from our first day here that Tamsin had an agenda and wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. She studied and worked more than anyone else. She scrutinized every detail and person around her, assessing how they could further her path to greatness.

   And Adelaide? She moved through the world in a different way. She was always quick to smile and find a joke wherever she went. She won everyone over with her easy charm and could talk her way out of anything. That turned out to be pretty useful with our instructors, considering Adelaide’s performances were all over the place. Sometimes she excelled. Sometimes she failed. None of it ever seemed to bother her.

   I loved them both.

   Each girl was powerful in her own way, one always burning with drive and the other so light and playful that she practically danced through her days. Me? I was the mediator, the one who kept those extremes balanced.

   I woke up with a renewed energy the next morning. Clara’s rumors had weighed on me for days, and I was eager to see what would come of last night’s “talk.” While dressing, Tamsin discovered a spot on her skirt that neither Adelaide nor I could actually see. It drove Tamsin into crisis mode, and Adelaide and I were ready before she was for a change. We left her to her scrubbing and made our way down to the foyer where other girls waited for the carriages that would take us to the village.

   Cedric milled around with my housemates and lit up at our approach. He usually stayed in Osfro for school but would occasionally run errands at the manors for his father, now that Charles Thorn—Jasper’s brother and the Glittering Court’s other owner—had decided to stay in Adoria. I’d grown to like Cedric for the genuine concern he showed for others—and I’d grown to respect him for his continued dedication to the Alanzans.

   Adelaide was the other girl he’d recruited—a much better choice than me in Jasper’s eyes. I was never jealous of her, but sometimes I felt guilty that Cedric had taken me on, instead of another like her who could give him a higher commission. Despite her inconsistent results, she was the picture of a real Osfridian girl—the kind those Adorian men probably truly wanted. Fair skin, blue eyes, golden brown hair. Perfect speech. Endless charm.

   “Are you going with us, or just going?” I asked. Cedric would sit through an orthodox church service if his cover required it, though he avoided it when possible. Uros had created twelve angels at the beginning of time, and the orthodox believed six had fallen. The Alanzans still revered all twelve and didn’t like listening to sermons that condemned half of those angels as evil.

   “Going.” He patted the suitcase at his side. “But you know I’ll miss you all terribly.”

   “It’s not fair,” Adelaide told him, pretending—badly—to be stern. “You get to go back to the city for all sorts of fun while the rest of us have to sit through a dull service.”

   He attempted an equally serious mien and had about as much success as she did. “It’s for the good of your soul.”

   “My soul’s doing just fine, thank you very much. If you really cared, you’d tell Mistress Masterson that salvation comes second to us finding husbands and that we should stay home to study instead.”

   “Salvation comes second to finding husbands?” Cedric put his hands to his chest in horror. “Why, Miss Bailey, that’s the most sacrilegious thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe you’d even think such a wicked thing.”

   “I didn’t,” Adelaide said, finally giving in to the grin she’d been holding back. “Tamsin tells us that every time we go to church.”

   I laughed with them and then realized that I’d left my gloves in my room—a true sin, as far as Mistress Masterson was concerned. “I’ve got to go back upstairs. Safe travels, Cedric.”

   “You too.” He patted my arm lightly before returning to his banter with Adelaide. As he did, I heard a gasp the two of them didn’t notice.

   I turned and saw it had come from Rosamunde, a girl in the house I liked quite a bit. She was huddled by the wall and murmuring something to her roommate, Sylvia. Both girls’ eyes widened when they saw me approach.

   “What’s going on?” I demanded.

   “He touched your arm!” said Sylvia.

   “It’s true then,” Rosamunde whispered. “About you and the younger Mister Thorn.”

   I repressed the urge to roll my eyes. “You know me better! How can you believe that nonsense Clara made up? Just wait. The next time you talk to her, she’ll tell you it isn’t true.”

   The two girls exchanged looks. “We were with her earlier today,” Rosamunde said. “And she didn’t say anything about it not being true.”