Anna set her wineglass down. “Well, you know that Grace was orphaned. Her parents were slain by demons.” She cast a quick look at Ariadne, who had been another such orphan. “Ordinarily, a surviving child would have been sent to live with a family member. If there were no family members who could take an orphan in, they would be sent to the orphanage in Idris, or placed in an Institute, as happened with Uncle Jem. There are living Cartwrights. Grace was to be sent to live with her father’s cousin, until Tatiana intervened.”

“What do you mean, ‘intervened’?” Lucie asked.

“Tatiana bought her,” Anna said flatly. “The Cartwrights were already overstretched with their own children, and she apparently offered them quite a handsome sum. The story is that she’d been skulking around the orphanage for years, claiming she wanted a daughter, but she hadn’t found any child to her liking. Until Grace.”

Lucie was horrified. “Does Grace know? That she was a—a transaction?”

“I rather hope not, for that would be a monstrous thing to face,” Anna said. “Though perhaps it is better to know the truth.”

The echo of Grace’s own words gave Lucie a start.

Ariadne said, “I wish there was some way we could help her.”

“I think there might be,” Lucie said, choosing her words with care. “Only she mustn’t know we’re doing it. Perhaps we could… inquire into the circumstances of Jesse Blackthorn’s death. We are better connected than Grace; we might be able to learn things she hasn’t.”

“Do you really think it would help her, to know the truth about her brother’s death?” Ariadne asked. “It does not always do good, to dig up the past.”

“I think any sort of resolution about the matter might bring her peace,” Lucie said.

For a few moments, the only sound was the crackling of the flames. Anna gazed restlessly into them; it was always a paradox, Lucie thought, the way Anna—generous, openhearted Anna—could be as opaque as clouded glass.

When she looked up at Lucie, her eyes were thoughtful, a little curious. “So what did you have in mind for this investigation?”

“We must find someone to talk to,” Lucie said, “someone who might know if there really was a warlock involved in Jesse—in what happened to Jesse Blackthorn. Ragnor Fell is in Capri, Malcolm Fade will not speak of what he knows, Magnus Bane is close with my parents.… We need to find another source. I thought perhaps you might speak to—Hypatia Vex?”

She tried not to look too eager. As far as they knew, this mystery mattered to Grace—not to her. Anna raised her eyebrows. Ariadne said nothing, though she didn’t look at all thrilled with the idea.