Alice was alone in the dining room. She looked at me with concern. “Are you well, Lizbeth?” she asked, her brows puckering together.

“I just had a late night,” I said. “Lots of people smoking, lots of noise. What are you up to today?”

Alice looked down at her plate, very pink and shy and smiling. “Konstantin and his mother are coming to call this afternoon.”

That brought a smile to my face and heart. “What time?”

“Four o’clock, after he gets off work.”

“Your mother is pleased?”

Alice’s smile grew. “She is. I had worried, since he’s not of noble blood…”

“Neither is Felix,” I said.

“Mama was not happy about that, but Lucy was fixed on it and Felix said the right things. For once.” Alice scrunched up her nose like a rabbit, and I had to laugh. “And Lucy seems happy.”

“She does,” I agreed. “I can’t imagine living with Felix, but they seem to suit each other.”

“He’s difficult,” Alice said, which was an understatement. “I am sure Konstantin is not scary like Felix.”

“Alice, be open to noticing things you don’t like, as well as things you do. No two people can live together without having a set-to now and then. There are going to be differences.”

That was as close as I could come to—not warning her, but alerting her, that marriage was not all a bed of roses, no matter how much you cared about your partner.

I loved Eli, but some days I both loved him and wanted to sock him in the jaw.

Alice considered my words seriously. “I’ll remember that,” she said.

“Mama was forced to marry my father, you know. He was older and had the two boys, who were not… agreeable. But he was a prince, and a grigori, and her parents were in poor health and wanted to see her settled before they died. It was not a good marriage, and he was not a good man. He brought shame on her and us.”

I had never known Alice to be so serious. This was obviously something she’d thought about at length.

“I’m sure your mother is glad to have you and Lucy and Eli,” I said.

“I believe she loves us dearly. But she should not have been made to marry a man she detested, much less have children by him.”

I had never heard Eli’s thoughts about his parents’ marriage. Alice’s were sad and interesting.

“There are faults you can live with, and faults you can’t,” I said. “I hope Konstantin has faults you can live with. His parents seem like very good people.”

“They do, and they seem to like me,” Alice said. She looked happy again.

I felt better after our chat. My spirits rose. I can do this , I thought. It’ll be over before too long. Just a few more days .

I was able to smile when Eli trailed downstairs, clean and alert.

He seemed pretty pleased with the night before.

Too many people passed (the housemaid, the cook, Veronika herself) through the dining room for me to tell him what I had been doing while he was squiring Felicia around.

I wanted to let him know what Maria had told us.

It would have to wait until later, when I couldn’t be overheard.

And that would be a good time for him to tell me about the big meeting of the day before. If he would. If he could.

We went over the schedule for the day.

Eli told me he had an afternoon meeting with his grigori superiors, though he didn’t say exactly who would be there, why he was doing it, or where this meeting would be. I got the feeling this was a smaller secret meeting to discuss the big secret meeting.

“So you’ll have Felicia by yourself,” he said. There was a question in his voice.

But I could hardly complain about it. She was my sister, after all. Eli and his family were doing more to help her than I’d ever expected.

Felicia slouched into the dining room in a dressing gown and helped herself to some bacon and eggs. Then toast. After the food and some coffee, she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

She and Alice talked about the night before for a few minutes, and then Alice went upstairs to plan her outfit for the very important visit this afternoon. Eli excused himself to fill up the car since I would need it.

“Here’s what’s on your schedule,” I told Felicia, passing her the sheet of paper.

“This afternoon I have tea at a real teahouse, English style,” she said. “I am so looking forward to that.”

She really was. I tried to look forward to it, too. With pleasure. “Three o’clock,” I said. “We need to leave here at two thirty.”

“Fenolla, Katerina, and Soo-Yung will be there.” Felicia picked up the schedule. “Fenolla’s mom reserved a table for eight at Mrs. Forrester’s English Teahouse. Four Listed men coming… Clayton, he’s nice. I saw you talking to him last night.”

“Camilla’s not invited?”

“Fenolla’s mom and dad did the inviting. I think Camilla had another engagement. She and this man from Canada are hitting it off.”

“Who are the other men?”

“Mateo.” She looked at a little notebook she’d started to carry with her.

She was making notes on people. “A guy from some Arab country named Hasani El Masry, haven’t met him yet.

A Korean boy named Park Joon-Ho. There’ll be a table for the adults, too.

You and Miss Harriet and Matthew Gregory and Katerina’s mom. ”

At least I’d have Harriet to talk to. Ahren was not invited, so Hans wouldn’t be around. I was aiming to get Hans on his own to ask him some pointed questions. That wouldn’t happen today.

“What are you looking so crabby for?” Felicia said. She was irritated that I wasn’t delighted with the schedule. “Have you ever had an English tea? I sure never thought I’d be doing that. And all these people are perfectly respectable! A teahouse is not a dangerous place.”

Meaning, there was nothing dangerous or suspicious about the event. But there was, I realized. Mateo and Clayton had made overtures to my sister already. So why were Samaah and Matthew Gregory inviting them to an event meant to feature their own daughter?

For that matter, why ask Felicia?

Maybe just because Felicia and Fenolla and Katerina were friends. Maybe Fenolla didn’t have many. The few times I’d talked to the girl, I’d found her levelheaded and smart, a good companion for my sister. But people were very strange about Fenolla’s dad being white and her mom being black.

I was not so sure about Katerina. I hadn’t really talked to her much, and I hadn’t been impressed by her mother, Irina. The questionable older brother worried me. But people couldn’t help who their families were.

I had to tiptoe around my sister. It was so easy to set her off these days. Even now she was looking at me narrowly, like she was sure I was thinking bad thoughts about her friends.

I made myself sit up straight, to look cheerful and lively. I had to pay attention to the road right below my feet, while being alert to the upcoming cliffs. I would wear another dress today, and the heels, and I would be pleasant. And I’d keep my eyes open. That was my job.

Since Felicia had gotten up late and eaten such a large breakfast and had her hair done afterward, she didn’t want lunch before we started for the tearoom. At least it wouldn’t be a long drive. I’d looked at the map and made a list of turns so Felicia could navigate.

I gave Eli a quick kiss as we went out the back door to where the car was parked. Eli headed for the front door. He meant to catch a streetcar to his meeting.

I had remembered to wish Alice good luck with the Volkovs’ visit. I almost envied Alice. She could be sure Konstantin and his parents didn’t want to kill her.

“Did you have a good time last night?” I asked Felicia. I was sure I was on the right route. I could spare a little attention. “You looked as though you were.”

“It was so much fun,” Felicia said. From the corner of my eye, I could see her beaming. “The food was good, and I danced and danced.”

“With Hans?”

“Oh,” she said airily, “a time or two. And Ahren. And Mateo. Clayton. A couple of other men. Why were you so late?”

“I had an errand to run.”

When she didn’t ask me any more questions, I knew butterfly Felicia was at the forefront that day.

She was full of the upcoming tea party. “Fenolla told me that an English tea has little sandwiches and cake and lots of other special food. We’ll all sit and be served.

It’s very fancy. Other than that, I don’t know.

This restaurant has been open for over thirty years. It’s in an old house.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said. I was hungry. “We’re on the right street; look sharp.”

The address was that of a two-story house that must have been built in the 1800s. It was painted dark green with white trim and planted around with bushes. The house had been a private home once upon a time. It was still pretending to be one.

The only thing that gave it away was a very small sign that read MRS. FORRESTER’S ENGLISH TEAHOUSE . You had to turn down a side street, since the house sat on a large corner lot, to turn and park behind the building. There were very few other cars there.

“Mr. Gregory reserved the whole building,” Felicia told me. “We’re a little early, so there may be other customers here. Don’t you think that’s kind of grand to have the whole building?”

“Yes, I didn’t expect that,” I said, which was all I could think of to say.

The back door was marked EMPLOYEES ONLY , so we followed the paved walkway around to the front.

I was glad of my light coat. As Eli had predicted, it had rained a little before dawn.

The bushes and the grass still shone with the moisture.

The sky was still cloudy. A gray day. I wasn’t surprised that the outside tables on the porch were covered with canvas.

Inside, it was homey, if your home was very pleasant. There were fresh flowers on each table, and the tablecloths were white and stiff with starch. The waitresses wore black uniforms with white aprons and caps.

“That’s the way they do it in England,” Felicia whispered.

That’s the way they did it if they were rich.