Prim scurried off to Percy’s library, returning a short while later clutching Sand and Shadows on a Sapphire Sea: My Adventures Abroad by Honeysuckle Isinglass.

Quesnel picked it up and read a few lines. He sputtered laughter.

Percy looked utterly mortified. “Why on earth would you think anyone would choose that as a cypher? And what are you doing with it, Tiddles? I thought we swore an oath never to grace it with––”

Prim said, “It’s not my copy. It’s Rue’s.”

“Rue, how could you?” Percy looked genuinely betrayed.

Rue held up a hand. “Before you accuse me of treating in family secrets, it was given to me by an agent of Dama’s at the Maltese Tower. I had no idea why or what for, and I didn’t know it had any bearing on your family. Now I suspect it is the means by which Dama transmits messages.”

“Isn’t it just like that vampire to use something so domestically embarrassing?” grumbled Percy.

Rue gestured encouragingly. “Go on. Test it and see if it works.”

Percy did so, paging through swiftly and jotting down words until he had a full message written out on his parchment.

While he worked, Quesnel asked, confused, “Why domestically embarrassing?”

“Oh, it’s nothing much, simply that Aunt Ivy wrote that book,” answered Rue.

Quesnel chuckled. “The Wimbledon Hive Queen? Fantastic. Wait until I tell Maman.”

“Don’t you dare,” instructed Rue. “It’s a family secret. You are now sworn to safeguard it to the grave as a potentially damaging moral hazard. Not to mention our communication cypher.”

Quesnel arched an eyebrow. “Am I, mon petit chou? I don’t remember any swearing.”

Rue narrowed her eyes at him.

Percy put down his stylus. “Well, there it is. The message makes perfect sense, so this book must be the code-breaker. Unfortunate indeed, but such is life.”

“Ever full of our mother’s embarrassments?” suggested Prim.

“What does it say?” Rue was dying of curiosity. She may have squirmed a bit in her seat. This was all so deliciously espionage-ish.

Percy passed it over so she could read it, at the same time offering up his own interpretation. “Essentially, he’s changing our mission. He found out about his agent being kidnapped while we were in transit.”

Rue examined it and then continued with her interpretation of the message. “It appears he wants me to go after Mrs Featherstonehaugh. He thinks she may have betrayed him in the matter of the tea and that’s why she was taken. The tea is in danger.”

Percy crossed his arms and glared at Rue. “Tell them the rest of it.”

Rue stuck her tongue out at him. She didn’t want the others to know the remainder of their new instructions. Quesnel would make a joke of it and Primrose would worry.

Percy said, because it looked like she wouldn’t, “Rue has been given sundowner dispensation.”