“I don’t know,” said Tamsin. “Last night, I guess? It’s pretty much been all salt fish since we left. They have loads of it up there. It all runs together after a while.”

   With the initial shock over, Mistress Culpepper had recovered herself and jumped into the organizational and administrative role she excelled at. Along with the returned girls, the Grashond settlers needed accommodations. There were Gray Gull sailors there as well, and although she wouldn’t dream of letting them stay in the house, she did make sure they were made comfortable until they could settle up business matters with Jasper.

   Tamsin was assigned to our room, obviously, and Adelaide and I both badly wanted to know what had happened in her time away. She didn’t seem up to any interrogation and simply said that her ordeal had been “not awful,” so we let her be and mostly just basked in the joy of having her back.

   When Tamsin was cleaning up in the washroom, Adelaide said to me, “If she really is okay like she told us, why won’t she talk about it?”

   I reflected back on the string of tragedies I’d seen in my own life. “Sometimes, when you go through something like that, it takes a while for you to want to talk about it.”

   I had no idea what living with the Heirs of Uros must have been like. That sect had settled Grashond years ago in order to build a community focused around the strict and austere principles of their faith. Their religion wasn’t heretical since they didn’t alter any of the orthodox doctrine, holidays, or texts, but they stripped down anything they thought was indulgent or excessive. They didn’t strike me as fun people to be around.

   Heloise, who’d become the emerald and now was engaged, gave her clothes to Tamsin. Once clean, fed, and dressed in green, Tamsin was ready to talk. But not about herself.

   “I hope you’ve left some men for the rest of us.” She sat on the bed and clasped her hands, looking between Adelaide and me expectantly. “You must have both gotten slews of offers by now.”

   Where did I even begin to explain what had happened to me? I kept my answer brief and vague. “Not that many in the way of, ah, official ones. But I feel optimistic about my future.”

   Tamsin’s hard gaze swiveled to Adelaide, and I realized I had no idea what had occurred in her meeting. She stammered out a recap of what had happened between her and Cedric, as well as the judgment they’d received.

   “Cedric and I can get married, with conditions. His father and uncle won’t advance us money to cover my contract—but Warren will. He says he doesn’t want someone who doesn’t love him in return and would rather cut his losses by recruiting upstanding citizens for his new colony. So we’re going with him to Hadisen next week. I’ll find a family to board me in exchange for housework and teaching their children. Cedric’s going to work a gold claim. He’ll get to keep some of the profit, and Warren gets the rest. When the contract’s paid off, we can get married and go somewhere else.”

   Something in her tone made me suspect she was well aware of Cedric’s controversial faith and his plans to go to Westhaven Colony.

   I didn’t know which was more outlandish: accepting help from the man she’d spurned or the thought of dapper Cedric working outside and panning for gold.

   Tamsin, as usual, had no shortage of speech. “What were you thinking? You turned down a future governor for . . . what, an impoverished student?”

   Adelaide looked at her feet. We were both beyond ecstatic to have Tamsin back, but feeling the full force of her personality again took a little adjustment. “Well, he dropped out of the university. And he’s not impoverished. He’s just . . . um, without assets. But I’m sure that will change.”

   “This would have never happened if I’d been around to look after you.” Tamsin turned her chastisement toward me. “Mira, how could you have stood for this?”

   “I had no idea,” I said honestly.

   “You’re her roommate! How could you not?”

   How indeed. I didn’t have a good answer and again berated myself for neglecting my friend. Adelaide looked guilty as well and probably thought it was her fault for not telling me. Between us and Tamsin’s reticence to talk, we were a circle full of secrets.

   In the week that followed, I saw little of Adelaide. She and Cedric were swamped with preparations for a journey that other settlers had been planning for months. Tamsin, on the other hand, was a nearly constant companion. The arrival of twenty new girls had completely changed the way the Glittering Court functioned. Normally, the social season would be winding down. Instead, it was almost like they had to reset and start all over again.

   “We’ll have to sponsor another great ball,” I overheard Jasper saying to Charles one afternoon. “It’ll be an expense we didn’t plan for, but we’ve also got a profit coming in that we’d written off. The sensationalism of this is already spreading. The Lost Girls. Missing at sea, surviving in the wilderness—but still here, beautiful and refined. This’ll renew interest from those who passed on the first batch and pull in men who weren’t even considering marriage. We should go back over the prices we’d settled for each one and consider raising them.”

   “Jasper, I recognize the importance of recouping our losses. But by the Six, don’t start pushing these girls into parties right away, not after everything they’ve been through.”

   “Of course I won’t. We need time to plan new events and get them outfitted first. All their original clothes were lost, but we can save money by altering the dresses of all the engaged girls. And,” Jasper added, “if any girls do want to jump right in, not even you can deny them that.”

   Tamsin was one of those girls. Two nights after the Flower Festival, Governor Doyle hosted a party celebrating the anniversary of Cape Triumph’s settlement. I still had misgivings about the deal Adelaide and Cedric had gotten enmeshed in, made worse by the fact that Cedric—a secret heretic—was locked into a business contract with a self-proclaimed heretic hunter. But Adelaide and Cedric were also desperate. Whatever his beliefs on religion, Warren had given them fair terms in his deal. The two of them remained wary, but as long as they fulfilled their half, everything would hopefully work out.