“Well,” she said, finally, “Tante Gretchen was right. You should have strangled that bastard with your own two hands and robbed him before you left. I would have.”

Giselle felt her jaw dropping and stared at her, not quite able to believe what she had just heard.

“Mind,” Rosamund continued, casually, after finishing the tea, “That certainly would have gotten you in trouble. It would probably have involved a trial, at least by the Bruderschaft, to prove it had been self-defense. So it is probably just as well that you didn’t.”

“I—ah—” Giselle stammered.

“As a Hunt Master of the Bruderschaft, and an Earth Master, I assure you that it is my opinion that this was, at worst, death by misadventure, and that the wretch had probably been a heartbeat away from death by apoplexy for years,” Rosamund concluded. “You certainly may go right on feeling as guilty as you like, but I’m telling you it’s not necessary.” She held up her cup. “Now, if you would be so kind, might I have a little more of this truly excellent tea while you tell me about the other Air Master here?”

8

ROSAMUND declined to allow Giselle to send a sylph for Leading Fox. “I would not be in the least surprised if you were exhausted,” she said. “Just give me a little bit of information about him, and the others here who know about magic, so I will know whom I can speak freely in front of.”

“There is not a great deal to tell, in that case,” Giselle admitted, and quickly summed up the two others, Captain Cody with his Fire Magic, and Fox with his strange Air Mastery. “The others who know about magic are Herr Kellermann, the announcer and also the business manager of the show, and the true Pawnee. Some of the people playing Pawnee are Mexicans; they know nothing of magic, so far as I am aware.”

“Good, much simpler that way.” Rosamund stood up. “I’m going to wish to speak with Captain Cody, Kellermann and Leading Fox at some length. You are in the territory governed and protected by the Brotherhood. We really do have a right to know what’s walking about in our house, after all.”

She raised an elegant eyebrow, as if she expected Giselle to dispute with her, but frankly, Giselle felt simply too intimidated. It was very clear that although Rosamund was only a couple of years older, she was vastly Giselle’s senior in experience. Worldly and magical!

“I could go—” she began, but Rosamund shook her head.