“That depends on what you were thinking about,” said Lucie. “New bonnets might be bad, the meaning of the universe less so.”

“I was thinking about my father. We’re meant to all have dinner at Cornwall Gardens tomorrow night. It’ll be the first time we’ve seen him since the wedding.” She pushed back her damp hair impatiently. “I tried so hard to make this happen,” she said. “I did everything to get my father back, and now that he’s here, I don’t know at all how to feel.”

“They sent him to the Basilias because you defeated the Mandikhor demon,” Lucie pointed out. “Otherwise he’d have gone to jail, Daisy, and he’d still be there. You don’t have to know how to feel, but it’s because of you that there’s a chance for reconciliation. I’m sure he knows that.”

“I suppose,” said Cordelia, with a wan smile. “Only I don’t know what to say to him, and I don’t have time to think of it. And it seems an awful thing to do, to make James attend this awkward family dinner—”

“He is your family,” said Lucie firmly, “just as I am; you are my sister now, and you will be my sister forever after. We will always be sisters and parabatai. That is what matters. In fact—” She glanced around. “Why don’t we practice the ceremony?”

“The parabatai ceremony?” said Cordelia. She had to admit, the thought had a certain appeal. “Do you know all the words?”

“I watched James and Matthew’s ceremony,” said Lucie. “I think I remember. Here, pretend where you’re standing is a circle of fire, and I’m standing in a different circle of fire.”

“Hopefully we will be wearing gear,” said Cordelia, arranging herself in the imaginary circle. “Our skirts would quite go up in flames.”

Lucie thrust out her hands and indicated Cordelia should do the same. They clasped hands, and Lucie, an intense look of concentration on her face, began to speak: “Though most parabatai are men, the ceremony uses words from the scriptures that were spoken by Ruth to Naomi. By one woman to another.” She smiled at Cordelia. “ ‘Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go—’ ”

Lucie suddenly jumped as if stung and dropped her hands. Alarmed, Cordelia moved toward her, forgetting about the imaginary fire rings in her concern. “Lucie, is everything all right—?”

The door opened and Filomena di Angelo came in. She wore a bored, sulky sort of expression—she had very dark eyebrows and red lips, and it made everything she did seem dramatic.