Aiana smuggled me inside the sleeping house through a side door she was supposed to be guarding, and I thanked her for saving me a trellis climb. I moved quietly and quickly up the stairs and flung open my bedroom door. No Adelaide. All the panic I’d felt for Grant earlier now returned and shifted onto her. The stark fear of losing her made me tremble as I hurriedly changed out of my dirty clothes and put on a nightgown. I needed to search the house. She couldn’t have sneaked out after the gala. She couldn’t have. She was probably in the kitchen. This was all just a big—

   Shouts sounded from out in the hall. I heard people running and doors opening, along with more yelling and frantic voices. I raced out the door and found nearly all the other girls looking out of their own rooms. The bodyguards thundered up the stairs. Jasper, Charles, and Mistress Culpepper followed with Clara right on their heels. They were all running toward the end of the hall, toward the attic door. Toward Adelaide.

   She still wore the white satin gown from earlier and clutched her silver mask in one hand. Fear filled her wide blue eyes, like she’d wandered off and now found herself lost and stranded in the wilderness. Cedric stood next to her, but then Jasper pulled him away and started shouting, “What have you done? What have you done?”

   I pushed my way through my nightgown-clad housemates and linked my arm through Adelaide’s. “It’s okay,” I told her, not really knowing if it was. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

   Jasper turned toward me, his eyes glittering with rage as he clutched Cedric’s arm. “It is not going to be okay! For five years, I’ve run one of the most prestigious businesses in Cape Triumph, and now it’s all going to fall apart when they find out my own son couldn’t keep his hands off one of our girls.” He fixed his glare first on Cedric, then Adelaide. “These two have ruined us!”

CHAPTER 24

   GASPS SOUNDED THROUGHOUT THE HALL. I WAS AS dumbstruck as everyone else, but I forced my confusion aside as I pulled Adelaide closer to me. I had to protect her. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I repeated. “I’ll get you out of here.”

   “You will do no such thing.” Mistress Culpepper strode up to us, fury etched upon her sharp face. She had on the same stiff dress from this morning, and I wondered if she slept in it. “The only place you’re going is to your room. Now.”

   Adelaide was still in shock, and I guided her toward our door. Everyone was already whispering and pointing, and I refused to let them see more. Cedric was practically being dragged away by his father and one of the hired men. Seeing them pass us was the only thing that snapped Adelaide out of her daze. “Cedric . . .”

   He looked back over his shoulder at her, and then he was gone. I pushed her into our room, and just as I closed the door, I heard Mistress Culpepper say, “I want two of you stationed outside her room all night. No one goes in or out.”

   Adelaide flounced onto the bed and buried her face in her hands. I moved swiftly to her side and put my arm around her. “What happened?”

   She dropped her hands and shook her head. “Oh, Mira. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

   “Tell me what already happened.”

   Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She was one of those people who still looked beautiful while crying. “Cedric and I—we—that is—Clara found us—and now . . . I don’t know.”

   It was strange to have poised, eloquent Adelaide so at a loss for words. But even with her lack of coherency, a feeling of dread began to build within me. Was it possible that I wasn’t the only one who’d done some scandalous things tonight?

   “Adelaide, what did Clara find you and Cedric doing?”

   “Nothing!” she exclaimed. “I mean, it was only kissing. Not whatever she’s saying. We only kissed. Just like the last time.”

   “Last time? How many . . . times have there been?”

   She wiped at her face. “Only those. I’ve loved him longer than that, ever since . . . well, I don’t know how long. We can’t get married, though. But there’s no way I can marry anyone else. Not anymore. What are they going to do to Cedric? What are they going to do to me? I’m going to have to go to a workhouse!”

   “You absolutely will not. I’ll smuggle you out on a ship before that happens. Now, let’s get you cleaned up. You’ll feel better.”

   I helped her get out of the elaborate dress and into a nightgown. As I washed the makeup from her face with a cool cloth, my mind raced. I was an even worse friend than I’d thought. Because in looking back, I realized that I should’ve known a long, long time ago that Adelaide and Cedric were in love. It was so obvious in the way they sought each other out, the way she used to light up whenever he visited Blue Spring. Any friend of theirs would have seen it. Any friend whose head wasn’t filled with spies and pirates.

   As she grew calmer, I got a slightly clearer version of the story. Apparently, she and Cedric had only recently discovered their love, and they’d tried to ignore it—resulting in both of them being miserable for the last month as Adelaide was trotted out for man after man. Everything had exploded when Clara had walked in on them kissing in the attic tonight.

   “What are they going to do to Cedric?” Adelaide asked again. “They can’t ignore this. We’re all supposed to be protected and virtuous.”

   I certainly wasn’t in the ranks of the virtuous anymore. I felt embarrassed that Adelaide and Cedric—so deeply in love—had managed to restrain themselves. As for me, I’d shamelessly given myself to . . . what? What was Grant to me?

   I couldn’t unburden myself to Adelaide now. Not anymore. She had too much going on without taking on my problems. She spent most of the night telling me variations of the same story, crying, and worrying about what would happen next. When she dozed a little near sunrise, I stayed awake and watched over her.