I didn’t recognize the two men outside. They wore suits and long coats, but the fabric was cheap. They weren’t potential suitors.

   “I’m sorry to disturb you,” one said, his eyes wide. “But Mister Doyle wanted us to come right away.”

   A few more curious girls emerged from their rooms, and Charles and the Grashond party entered the foyer.

   “Mister Doyle?” asked Jasper. “Isn’t he in Hadisen?”

   The man who’d spoken hesitated. “He is. But . . . your girl . . . Miss Wright. She’s not here, is she?”

   “Miss Wright is supposed to be in Hadisen.” Jasper looked between the two men, and both averted their gazes. “Why would you come here asking for her?”

   The second man jerked his hat off his head and clutched it to his chest. “I—I’m so sorry, sir. We lost her in the storm last night.”

CHAPTER 28

   “WHAT DO YOU MEAN . . . LOST?”

   Jasper’s voice was very low, very cold. The two men shuffled their feet, each seeming to hope the other would do the talking. The first one gave in and explained. “It happened when we were about to sail last night—you see, we were all on board, ready to go. Then that storm started blowing in. And your girl, she just . . . just . . .”

   “She panicked, sir,” supplied the second man. “She said she wouldn’t do it. She was hysterical. Jumped overboard, waded to shore, and disappeared into the woods.”

   “And nobody went after her?” exclaimed Jasper.

   “We did, sir! But it was dark. We don’t know how she got away so fast. We searched as much as we could. Then the captain said they had to sail right then or they couldn’t go at all because of the weather. Mister Doyle left us behind to keep looking.”

   “Mister Doyle left without her?” asked Charles. Even he was incredulous.

   “He didn’t want to, sir, but he had to get to Hadisen on time. Important business today. He thought we’d be able to find her. He thought for sure she’d come back here.”

   “When the storm got so bad that we couldn’t search anymore, we headed back to town ourselves,” added the other man. “But we stopped at any house along the way, in case she’d begged for shelter. No one saw her. We thought . . . hoped she’d be here.”

   I didn’t realize my knees had buckled until Rosamunde’s arm slipped around me. “Easy, Mira,” she murmured.

   I felt weightless. Black stars sparkled in my vision.

   “Well, she’s not here!” yelled Jasper. “And you shouldn’t be here either! You shouldn’t have stopped looking. Doyle shouldn’t have left!”

   The two men cringed. “We w-would’ve kept looking, sir,” one said. “Honest. But you—you saw the storm. We could barely find our way through it, and it wasn’t safe for us to be in the woods, not with trees blowing over.”

   I grabbed the rail again and pulled myself up. “Do you think it was safe for her?” I screamed down. “Do you think she was able to find her way through it when you couldn’t?”

   Everyone looked up at me in surprise, but no one chastised me. Jasper fixed his glare back on the men. “Well, it’s safe now, and you’re going to keep looking. Everyone is. Charles, we have to go to town and get the militia to start searching those woods.”

   The household sprang into action, but I stayed still. I couldn’t move from that spot. I kept waiting to wake up, but it didn’t happen. This wasn’t some dream brought on by the exhaustion of last night’s peril. This was the same horror that kept happening over and over in my life: my loved ones, snatched away. Except Tamsin had been returned to me. She wasn’t supposed to leave again.

   I sat down on the top step and said to no one in particular: “Why would Tamsin do that? She wanted to go with Warren more than anything.”

   An answer came, unexpectedly, from Winnifred. I didn’t know her well, but she’d been on board the Gray Gull with Tamsin. “I can’t speak for her. She never seemed as afraid as the rest of us, but I have a hard time getting on any boat now. We took a river skiff part of the way from Grashond, and it just about killed me. If someone tried to put me on a boat during another storm, I might run too.”

   I studied her. Before Adelaide had become the diamond, that title had been Winnifred’s. She was poised and beautiful and liked to flaunt her superiority, but her face was deadly earnest now. If she had been so affected, why not Tamsin?

   Because Tamsin never once uttered a word about a fear of boats. When she’d say anything about their time in the northern colonies, Tamsin would mention her dislike of the weather, the rough lodging, the strange customs of the Heirs. But boats hadn’t made her list of complaints, not even when she’d referenced that river trip.

   Rosamunde tried to tug me up again. “Mira, come back to your room. You should rest.”

   “Rest? How can I rest?” I jumped to my feet. “My best friend is out there in the woods, cold and scared! Maybe injured!”

   “You only assume your friend is alive.” The woman from Grashond stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at us with pale, cruel eyes. “She was a prideful, unrepentant girl who reached too far. She didn’t heed the first warning Uros sent, and now she’s been dealt her final punishment.”

   Both Rosamunde and Winnifred had to stop me from running down the stairs. In the foyer, Gideon took his companion’s arm and steered her away. “Come along, Dinah.”

   The fury she ignited smothered my shock and sorrow. I was wide awake now. My focus grew sharp and clear. I wouldn’t sit around and lose myself to my own despair. I would act. I would find Tamsin. She had survived one storm and could survive another.

   Getting anyone to let me help was difficult, though. Jasper and Charles mobilized quickly but didn’t expect us girls to have any part of the search. The Glittering Court was supposed to go on as usual, though most of the day’s events had been cancelled in the wake of the storm. Other lost people had been caught unaware last night, and many places had suffered damage—especially the poorer areas, where they didn’t have the means to brace against these seasonal storms. Lowlands had flooded. A few fires had broken out, and I even heard one brief mention of the Sun’s Promise. The militia and army were in high demand, but Jasper secured some of them for a search, along with other civilian volunteers.