I smiled and nodded my way through twenty minutes of competitive bragging, trying to seem interested in how fast this one’s horse was or how opulent that one’s personal pleasure boat was. It would have been easier if any of them had given the barest deference to context, or asked me to express an opinion other than agreement.

“Lady Amalia, your family is famous for its generous patronage of music. Well, I’m a fair hand at the harpsichord myself …”

“Harpsichords! The lady doesn’t want to hear about harpsichords; she could buy all the harpsichords in Eruvia. But you can’t buy good breeding, you know. Did I mention I have the blood of kings in my veins?”

I remembered when I asked my mother how she dealt with fortune hunters, as the wealthiest widow in Raverra. Just think about how you could have them all executed, she’d said. They see it in your eyes, and they leave you alone.

“Lady Amalia.”

I turned to face the new one, my fixed smile stretching toward bloodthirsty, only to find Marcello there in full dress uniform.

“Oh! Lieutenant.” My cheeks flushed as I remembered Zaira’s words. Next time, I was bringing a fan.

He bowed, formal in this public place. “May I have a word, my lady?”

I made my insincere apologies to the gold hunters and stepped aside with Marcello. “Thank you for rescuing me,” I murmured.

“It’s actually a matter of security.” His tone was serious. “Do you know why that woman is watching you?”

His eyes flicked sideways. I tried to follow his gaze without staring. The prim lady who’d called Domenic away spoke to Ignazio now, consulting a leather-bound notebook through her golden glasses. She didn’t seem to be paying me any attention, but I had the skin-prickly feeling her eyes had just left me.

“Is she?”

“I’m here expressly to see to your safety and Zaira’s this evening. I’ve been watching you both all night. So has she.”

I shrugged wearily. “Marcello, people stare at me at parties all the time, because of who my mother is. It’s why I don’t like them.”

His mouth quirked. “Parties, or people?”

“I like some people.” I smiled, in case he had any doubt he was one of them.

“But can you think of any reason she’d be watching you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know who she is.”

“Lady Colanthe Savony. Technically, she’s Duke Bergandon’s steward, but in terms of day-to-day matters, she essentially runs the city of Ardence.”

“I have no idea why she would be interested in me,” I said. “Unless she’s attempting to get a sense of whether Zaira and I are about to set Ardence on fire, in which case she’ll be reassured we are a very silly pair of girls who are no threat to her city whatsoever.”