What were you doing at the magistrate’s in the middle of the night?

What do you know about my brother’s death?

Were you involved?

Did you bring the rope?

Ana, bless her heart, has no such filter. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Ana,” my father hisses sharply. It would have been a yell, but I suspect he no longer has the strength for that.

Sebastian holds up a mollifying hand. “It’s quite all right. I find I’m rather fond of our Ana’s verbal eccentricities.”

Our Ana? Beside me, she bristles.

My father finally seems to take in the truly wretched state of our clothing. “Why in heaven’s name do the two of you look like you’ve ridden halfway across New Spain? Magdalena said you were sequestered in prayer.”

“Change of plans.” I set my gloves—the poor things might be too ruined to save, honestly—down on a nearby table. “We were out for a ride instead.”

Well, it isn’t a lie. It simply isn’t the whole truth.

I want this conversation to be short. Rosalita is still out there somewhere, and Lord knows how long she has left. If she has any time left at all.

“I can see that,” Sebastian says with a fond smile. But it doesn’t reach his eyes. It’s a painted-on look, one for show. It lies on the surface, like oil on water. “Well, I hope you haven’t worn yourselves out.” He shares a look with my father who offers him a shallow nod. “Cristobal Téllez-Girón, Marquis of Peñafiel, is hosting a masked ball this evening, and I would like for you to join me. As a guest and as my beloved.”

My brain handily skips right over the invocation of Cristobal’s name and Sebastian’s flagrant use of a word he has not earned. I shoot my own look at my father. “A ball? After what happened at the last one?”

The poor man actually flinches. “Eustaquia—”

“Kiki.”

My father’s glare at least is almost a return to form. “As a family, we are still in mourning. But life must go on.”

I shake my head, bile inching its way up my throat. With Sebastian here, I cannot say what I honestly think. What has happened to my father? Did Alejandro’s death break him utterly and completely? Has he completely taken leave of his senses. “How dare—”

“Your father’s words are sound, Eustaquia.” He smiles fleetingly. “Kiki. Now more than ever it’s imperative we show a united front.”

Ana snorts, but to her credit, she bites her tongue.