Anna got there first and threw it open. This room was also rather dark, having no visible windows at all and being illuminated only by a small lamp sitting on a table near the door. A groan drew their attention to a large shadow on the other side of a round table sitting in the center of the room. They cautiously made their way toward it.

Another groan encouraged them to come closer, and now they could see a rather buxom woman dressed in some sort of brightly patterned robe lying on the floor.

“Madame Ophelia?” Anna asked uncertainly.

The woman groaned again, raising a hand to her head.

“Are you injured?” Elizabeth said, deciding that was the best question to ask under the circumstances.

The woman opened her eyes and peered up at them. “You!” she cried. “You have done this.”

Before they could decide which one of them she was accusing, Elizabeth and Anna were unceremoniously shoved aside by Mrs. Vanderslice, who instantly fell to her knees beside the prone medium.

“Are you all right, Madame Ophelia? What happened?”

“I was overcome,” Madame Ophelia declared, allowing Mrs. Vanderslice to help her sit up. “So much doubt! So much disbelief. I cannot think with all of this swirling around me.”

“No one doubts you, Madame,” the lady from the waiting room insisted. She had obviously followed Mrs. Vanderslice into the room, along with everyone else. “How can you even think that?”

“Not you, Mrs. Lindhurst. It is these new ones, I fear.” Madame Ophelia glared at Elizabeth and Anna, which Elizabeth felt was patently unfair. They hadn’t even had a chance to express their disbelief yet.

“They’re my guests. Should I send them away?” Mrs. Vanderslice asked humbly, earning a black look from her daughter and an exasperated one from Elizabeth.

But Mrs. Bates knew exactly how to handle the situation because society women always did, even if they’d never actually had a medium faint at the very sight of them before. “Madame Ophelia, I assure you we only came because Clarissa told us you can put us in contact with our loved ones, and we wanted that above all else. We certainly didn’t come to question your powers or to doubt you. How silly would we be to waste our time like that?”

Gideon might have been a terrible liar, but his mother was among the best. Elizabeth wanted to weep with joy, but of course she couldn’t indulge herself right now. Instead, she concentrated on looking suitably sincere.

“That makes perfect sense,” Mrs. Lindhurst said with genuine sincerity. “Norman, help Madame Ophelia up.”

Norman, the man from the waiting room, did so with a minimum of enthusiasm.