‘Good evening, Duchess,’ one of them said in a low, throaty voice, whilst the other grinned a toothy smile. ‘Would you care to have your fortune read?’

Rosa instinctively recoiled.

‘Oh no, thank you, I—’

‘Good heavens, Rosa, don’t be so uptight,’ Eustace said. ‘Ladies love having their fortunes read and these twins are renowned all over Europe. In fact they’re the very reason I employed this troupe. I thought they would please you.’ He gave her a little push forward and Rosa clenched her jaw. She did not believe that for a moment.

‘Do not worry about your swans,’ Eustace said. ‘There’s plenty of time before we unveil them.’

His voice brimmed with excitement, eager for the outpouring of praise he fully expected to come his way when the clockwork birds made their debut. He went out, closing the door behind him, leaving Rosa alone with the twins.

‘Sit down, child,’ the first woman spoke again, indicating a chair on the other side of the table. ‘I’m Gwendolyn and my sister is Alice. We are both gifted with second sight.’

Reluctantly, Rosa took her seat, her heavy, satin skirts rustling against her legs. She saw that Gwendolyn wore her hair in a bun, whilst Alice’s was long and loose down her shoulders, making her look curiously child-like, in spite of her wrinkles and liver spots.

‘How fortunate that the party was tonight, your grace,’ Gwendolyn said. ‘One day later and it would not have happened at all. We would all have been searching for our mourning attire.’

Rosa had no idea what she was talking about and simply stared.

Alice shook her head. ‘They say women spend most of their lives in mourning, one way or another.’

Her voice was startlingly different from her sister’s, high and fluting as a girl’s.

‘How true that is.’ Gwendolyn fixed her eyes on Rosa. ‘Most people believe the future stretches ahead of them, shrouded in fog, but we see time as a loop. Everything that has ever happened to us has already happened somewhere in that circle.’

‘We see the barbecues and fish-fries of your past,’ Alice said, although she made no move to touch the cards at her elbow.

Georgia.

‘The wild animal stalking your present,’ Gwendolyn put in.

The Boar.

‘And as for your future …’ Alice trailed off and looked at her sister.

‘You carry new life inside you,’ Gwendolyn said.

Rosa automatically looked down at her dress. She was larger around the middle, it was true, but her pregnancy was not yet public knowledge and she’d thought it would be a while before it became obvious. She wondered whether Eustace had told them. In fact this entire performance had probably been carefully staged by him in order to bring her pain. These women were in his employ, after all, and she knew she could not trust a word they said.