“No,” Miss Corvus said. “I made you into what I wished I could be myself.” She lowered her handkerchief from her lips. “I was raised as are most respectable British girls. Kept in ignorance of politics and the law. Brought up so the world—and even my own body—was a mystery to me. Only after having been exploited did I recognize what I was lacking. It was other women who illuminated me. They guided me during my time on the continent. Strong, extraordinary females. They already knew then what I was only coming to comprehend, that absent knowledge, absent rights, ladies are obliged to seek guidance from men. Our fathers, brothers, and husbands. It’s how they defeat us. It’s how they win.”

“But they can’t win,” Nell said. “Not if we fight. Not if you fight.”

Miss Corvus shook her head. “My battle is long past. You’re the fighters now. That’s what I’ve given you. The skill to affect conformity and the grace to move in society, when all the while you’re focused on the future. Not just for yourselves, but for all women.”

“A woman looking through a doorway, not behind her,” Effie murmured, thinking of Miss Corvus’s portrait. “Her true face hidden from the world.”

“In time, perhaps, society will be different,” Miss Corvus said. “When that day comes, we can show them who we truly are. For now, we must adhere to our roles. To change the world, we must seem to be of the world. And the world at the moment is no respecter of women’s strength.”

“Perhaps that’s the problem,” Nell suggested. “Perhaps we should show them our strength.”

“And terrify the men in power?” Miss Corvus scoffed.

“Perhaps they should be terrified,” Effie replied.

Miss Corvus again shook her head, sternly dismissing the idea. “They would be even less likely to enact change for our benefit. No. You must do no more and no less than exactly as I’ve told you to do. Find evidence of Compton’s wrongdoing so we might expose him.”

“There’s nothing yet to connect him to any wrongdoing except that which he did to you,” Effie said. “That must be how we destroy him.”

“I agree,” Nell said. “It will be unpleasant for you to relive it, but—”

“He can’t harm me now,” Miss Corvus said. “I left Elizabeth Wingard on the road somewhere between Paris and Marseille. The world believes her dead. I intend her to remain so.”

“Then let her stay dead,” Effie said. “It can only worsen the narrative of Compton’s crimes against her.”

“There’s no proof of those crimes,” Miss Corvus said.