But she watched him watching Aliria Carvon, and she grew afraid.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about Aliria if I were you,” said a voice in her ear, and she looked up to find herself accosted by a young woman with a friendly smile and an intelligent expression. “She lives to be outrageous. The party wouldn’t be any fun for her if people weren’t talking about her when it was over.”

“They might be talking about her corpse,” Kit said shortly. “That wouldn’t be much fun for her either.”

The woman turned to survey the guldman, once more standing alone on the edge of the room. “I don’t doubt that he’d love to strangle her, but I can’t imagine he’d have the chance.”

“More likely to cut her throat,” Kit said coldly. “He could do it faster than she could draw breath to scream.”

The blueskin turned back to survey Kit with interest. She wore her hair cut close to her scalp and jewelry from a jahla lover, so she clearly considered herself both fashionable and rebellious. But Kit was not impressed. Her Higher Hundred breeding molded her cheekbones and settled across her shoulders like a shawl; this was not a woman who strayed too far from the common road. “To slit her throat,” the woman said, “he’d have to be armed. And surely, at an event like this—”

“He’s got a knife,” Kit said. “I guarantee it.”

“Maybe somebody should warn Aliria, then.”

“I think that would be an excellent idea.”

The woman held out her hand. “I’m Melina Lurio, by the way,” she said. “You weren’t introduced to me when you came in, but I know your cousin by sight.”

“Kitrini Candachi.”

Melina smiled, an unexpectedly engaging expression. “Yes, I knew that,” she admitted. “I thought it was awfully brave of you to come here.”

“It feels more stupid than brave.”

“But you’ve done so well! Emron Vermer is something of a catch, you know. He doesn’t have any sisters, so all his mother’s property will go to his wife.”

Kit could not help staring in indignation until she caught Melina’s laughing expression. A joke. “My cousin Sereva is already planning to invite him to dinner.”

“I can’t tell you the number of eligible men I’ve been introduced to in the past three years,” said Melina. “All completely insufferable, although I know that someday I’ll have to marry. I keep waiting to find the least offensive of the lot before I agree to anything. Actually, I’d probably marry Nolan if he’d have me. I can’t imagine anyone easier.”

“Nolan?” Kit asked politely.

“Oh, a man I work with.”

Ah, not only a jahla but a career woman. Perhaps Melina was a bit more outrageous than Kit had thought. “And where do you work?”