Elizabeth hazarded another glance around the table. “But I said something shocking, didn’t I? I can tell by your faces.” When no one responded, she grew more desperate. “What was it? What did I say?”

Mother Bates cleared her throat when no one else responded. “You said we were all liars and that Peter was . . . was made up.”

“Why would I say a thing like that?”

“It wasn’t you, of course,” Mother Bates explained. “It was . . . well, it was another voice, like the way Peter sounds when he speaks through Madame Ophelia.”

Elizabeth looked around the table again. “And this voice said you were all liars?”

Madame Ophelia merely glared at her, but Mrs. Regis and Mrs. Kirkwood both nodded stiffly.

“But why . . . ?” She considered her own question for a long moment. “But you are liars, aren’t you?” she finally determined. She turned to Madame Ophelia. “You just pretend that a spirit speaks through you, and you . . .” She scowled at the other two ladies. “You two are just pretending to receive messages from the spirits to trick me. Does she pay for that?”

Both ladies tried to deny it, speaking at once and babbling anxiously but making no sense at all.

“Is that true?” Mother Bates asked in outrage. “How despicable! But, Elizabeth, how could you have known such a thing?”

“I didn’t,” Elizabeth said. “Not until . . . But this is preposterous. There’s no such thing as the sight and no one can speak to the spirits. Madame Ophelia is just pretending and you ladies are assisting her. I have no idea why you’ve gone to so much trouble for us, but you’ve wasted your time. We never should have come.”

Elizabeth tried to rise, but almost fell, and Mother Bates and Persephone, who was still hovering nearby, caught her and eased her back into her chair. She rubbed her temples and sighed in defeat.

“Just rest a moment, Mrs. Bates,” Madame Ophelia said kindly. “You have had a shock. Communing with the spirits can be exhausting, especially when one is new to the experience.”

Elizabeth frowned at her. “I told you—”

“Yes, yes, you do not believe, and yet the spirits spoke through you, did they not?”

“If you’re talking about that silly thing with the horse race—”

“And today you knew these ladies were only pretending.”

Mother Bates gasped, but Elizabeth merely stared at her in wonder. “You admit it, then? That this is all fake?”

“Certainly not, but today was a test for you. I asked these ladies to help me try your powers, to see if you would know they were pretending.”

“That was . . .” Elizabeth caught herself. Would a society matron say “a dirty trick”? Probably not. “. . . outrageous.”

“And very unkind,” Mother Bates added with a disgruntled frown. “Elizabeth could have been injured.”

Elizabeth rubbed her elbow meaningfully and gave Madame Ophelia an accusatory look.