Rosamund clambered her way into the largest. There were huge chunks of masonry and fallen pillars scattered about the interior, which was probably why the buffalo and cattle had not been penned here. It would be a disaster if one of them was to step into a hole and break a leg in a panic. Giselle waited at what had been the doorway as Rosamund poked around inside.

Finally Rosamund came out, and her frown had deepened.

“What did you find?” Giselle asked, as the Earth Master began a determined trudge back to the encampment.

“It was a convent. Not just any convent. A Magdalene convent. And that . . . could be bad. I need to talk to Cody and Fox at once.” They both spotted the former seeing to his own comfort under the bandwagon, and Rosamund picked up her pace.

“Why?” Giselle asked. “Mother and I lived in the abbey and it was fine. Very peaceful, in fact.”

“Because Magdalene convents were where girls who got themselves into trouble were often essentially imprisoned,” Rosamund explained. “There are generally unhappy ghosts. There are sometimes angry and dangerous ghosts.” She bit off what she was saying as they reached Cody. “Captain! A word!”

“Anytime, Miz Rosamund,” Cody drawled, straightening up from where he had been kneeling in the grass. “But iffen it’s a complaint ’bout the accommodations, I’m a-feared I can’t help y’all.”

“Not . . . exactly.” Rosamund crossed her arms over her chest and took a stance that suggested that she was not to be trifled with or cajoled. “You need to issue orders that no one is to go wandering in those ruins after dark. And if you have some sort of Elemental that can guard you as you sleep, I cannot stress enough that you should do so.”

“Already did the first—took a look-see, and I don’ need nobody breakin’ a leg in there.” He gave her a quizzical look. “I ain’t no Master though; jest got a liddle Fire Magic. What’s got your tail all bushed?”

“That’s what’s left of a Magdalene Convent, and there could be dangerous spirits about once the sun sets—” Rosamund began, and was interrupted by Cody chuckling.

“Missy, I dunno what spooks you Germans, but us Americans ain’t a-feared of no ghosties. Specially not ghosts of nuns, of all damn things.” At the sight of Rosamund’s fuming face, he just laughed a little more. “Iffen y’all had said there was some sorta old god, or other nasty critter in there, it’d be one thing. But ghosts cain’t hurt nobody, all they kin do is skeer ya. An’ I ain’t a-feared of ghosts, an’ anyway, y’all don’t even know if there’s any in there.”