Her face went from polite inquiry to gaping astonishment. “The girl who killed her family?”

Oh, for God’s sake. “Yes, Penny. That girl.”

“Oh, golly. I’m so sorry for my blunder.”

Good recovery. “After all, they were trying to abduct her to sell her to the highest bidder.”

“Then good for her,” Penny said stoutly. “My husband was a bastard, too.” All of a sudden, I liked Penny better.

“I’d love to introduce your sister to my son,” she said hopefully.

“Then I will do my best to make that happen,” I said. “Getting back to Dietrich Gruber. Have you heard any rumors about why he was killed?”

“According to my friend, he had a knife and a vial of acid in his shirt pocket,” said Penny. “Evidently, he’d planned to do someone awful harm.”

Acid. I couldn’t even think about acid tossed at my sister’s face or I’d throw up. Still wasn’t completely sure I wouldn’t. “I wonder who stopped that from happening,” I said, and pulled my lips into a smile. “I’ll fetch my sister.” I owed Penny.

Felicia was fine with being retrieved from the company of a boy from some country in the Far East whose broken English made conversation very uphill. She excused herself politely, and was just as polite when she met Jason Featherstone, who seemed really overwhelmed at meeting Felicia.

“I say, you’re quite the belle of the ball!” Jason said.

Felicia was charmed. “You’re so sweet.”

“Would you like to have a dance?” Jason offered, terrified by his own courage.

“Of course!” My sister gave Jason her hand and he swept her onto the dance floor.

Penny and I watched as Jason did a decent job of maneuvering Felicia around. I felt like patting Penny’s shoulder and saying “He’s doing so well,” as I would for a three-year-old. Penny glowed. “There’s hope for the boy,” she said. “Look at him! Who would have thought it?”

“He should meet Fenolla Gregory,” I said. “Her father, Matthew, is from England, and Fenolla goes to the Rasputin School. If she goes back to England, she won’t be able to practice her art openly. If she stays here, she will.”

“None of that ‘keep your light hidden’ in Britannia,” Penny said briskly. “Can you point out the young lady?”

I did. Penny may have looked a bit thoughtful when she saw Fenolla’s color, but she was agreeable to being introduced. I had done my good deed for the evening.

Eli was making the rounds, as usual. When he came back to my side, he said, “There are some people my age still looking this year.”

“They should come to Texoma and hire a gunnie.”

“That’s what I tell them,” he said, with one of his rare smiles.

It was my turn to glow.

“You can go do something else,” Eli offered. “I’ll watch.”

So I set off around the crowded room. I nodded and smiled to people I had met.

I tried to look pleasant when I was close to people I had not.

I greeted Harriet, who still had a bruise on her face from the explosion but seemed otherwise hale.

Her charge was dancing with Clayton Dashwood, but they didn’t seem to be enjoying each other’s company.

Konstantin and his parents weren’t here, since he wasn’t officially entered in the Wizards’ Ball events. I would have enjoyed talking to them. Instead, I wandered, hoping to meet someone who could tell me more about the man I’d killed at the opening ceremony.

Then I bumped into Felix. His part of guarding Felicia seemed to be scowling at everyone in the room. We leaned against a wall together.

I told him what Penny Featherstone had related to me about Dietrich Gruber.

Felix and Eli had talked about it the day after it happened, so Felix was fully informed.

They’d known his identity and hadn’t told me.

It had slipped their minds, Felix said. “There’s been so much happening. ” I couldn’t deny that.

“Why was Felicia wasting time with that gawky boy?” Felix muttered.

“It didn’t hurt Felicia to dance with Jason Featherstone,” I told him. “And see, it made a difference to the boy.” There Jason was, right now, dancing with Fenolla Gregory, who seemed to be enjoying herself.

“We had another meeting yesterday,” Felix said, out of the blue. I was instantly on the alert.

“Another one?”

Felix nodded. Lucy had made an attempt to smooth his hair, but at this point in the evening it was a mess.

“The first meeting a couple of days ago was to hear the vision of a seer.” I would have thought he was joking, but Felix sounded very serious.

I kept my mouth shut. I hated Felix knowing that Eli hadn’t told me something. “Didn’t know there was such a thing,” I said finally.

“I’m assuming Eli didn’t tell you what the old man said. But I think you need to know. I think Eli may have told Felicia. Which is the last thing in the world he should have done. The girl’s not subtle.”

I waited. I wasn’t sure, for a moment, if I really did want to know. I gritted my teeth. I had to listen to this. Knowledge was valuable. Felix stepped from my side to face me, turning his back to the room. No one would read his lips.

“The old man said that in the next few years, most of the Jews in Europe will be murdered. Buried in mass graves. Men, women, and children. Literally millions of people.”

I heard these terrible words while people were laughing and wine was flowing. Girls in their pretty dresses, men in their evening best, surrounded me. And I was listening to these terrible words . “How? By what means?” I managed to ask.

“Old Walter said the Germans would kill them all. And gypsies. And homosexuals. And anyone who harbored them. With poison gas. Batches at a time.”

I would have liked to sit down, but there weren’t any chairs in sight.

Felix, relentless, kept on going. “Millions, he said, and he repeated it.”

That was on a scale so large I couldn’t grasp it. “But won’t the German people rise up to prevent it?”

“No. Nor will anyone else.”

I turned on my heel and walked away, my legs shaking. I had to put space between myself and Felix.

But he followed me.

He took hold of my shoulder and turned me to face him. From the corner of my eye, I could see a few people take notice.

“Let go of me. People are looking,” I hissed. At home I would not have cared who saw this, and I would have punched Felix in the face. Here, that was a bad thing. It would reflect poorly on Felicia.

Felix was smart enough to drop his hand and straighten his back, but his face did not relax enough. “What does this mean to you?” he said in what I could only call an angry whisper. “What have you heard?”

“Heard? What do you mean? I only heard what you just said.” Now I was not only angry, I was also confused.

Eli boomed, “You two! Squabbling again!” I looked up to see his face, smiling cheerfully as he shook his head in mock disgust. This was so unlike Eli that it shocked me back into my senses.

“You know your brother-in-law,” I said, forcing myself to smile back. “He loves to spring jokes on me at the wrong moment.”

“Felix, I’ve warned you about teasing Lizbeth,” Eli said in a more moderate voice, since people were already turning away. “You really have a poor sense of timing.”

“Eli, why don’t we dance? We can still watch Felicia as we take a turn around the floor.”

Eli looked as though I’d proposed he dress in a clown costume. But after an awful little pause, he said, “Of course. I’d be honored to dance with my wife.”

I gave Felix a little look that told him where he could stick his awful stories and put my left hand on Eli’s shoulder as I saw other women doing.

(At some of the dances they were doing the more modern and exciting things, but this evening was completely traditional.) Eli took my right outstretched hand and off we went.

I had been pretty sure he could dance, and I had known I could follow. We didn’t do too badly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask if you wanted to dance. You always surprise me. What did that ass Felix say to you?” he said, under cover of the music.

“It should not be talked about here.”

“Felix,” he muttered, in no fond tone.

“Yes, Felix ,” I said. After a moment, I found myself able to enjoy dancing with my husband. I had a gratifying glimpse of Felicia’s astonished face as we swept by her and Clayton Dashwood.

Even Eli seemed pleased with our little excursion on the dance floor. His smile was not forced but genuine, as we resumed watching Felicia after the music ended. Eli even held my hand for a few seconds.

Mateo Medina Dominguez partnered with Felicia next and led her into dinner afterward.

Eli and I split up to sit by separate people of interest, me by Mateo’s uncle Agustin, since I could speak Spanish, and Eli by Clayton Dashwood’s twin, Camilla, who was being pursued hotly by the Canadian horseman.

Eli wouldn’t have to talk much, since the Canadian was really wrapped up in her.

Agustin avoided all mention of Felicia’s family, though I took care to let him know that she’d had no contact with them growing up, when they could have helped her out of a terrible situation.

He gave a grave nod as he absorbed this information, which was probably common knowledge by now.

He took equal care to let me know his acquaintance with Felicia’s grandfather had been slight, and he (the uncle) had not liked or trusted Francisco when he’d met him.

Agustin kind of slid a lot of questions into our conversation, and I answered them all honestly.

If Mateo was sincerely interested in marrying Felicia, the Medinas should know that Felicia intended to complete her grigori training…

and that she certainly knew how to take care of herself, having grown up poor as dirt, with very spotty supervision.

“I understand you brought her out of her situation in Mexico?” Agustin said.

“Eli and I.”

“It’s true there was a gun battle?”

“It’s true.”

“And you prevailed?”

I had had another dream the night before about that day in Mexico, the hot sun on the train platform, the long, dangerous trek back to Texoma alone.