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The ladies all gasped, and I wanted to burst out laughing.

“Yes, that’s right,” Lady Christine said. “You were raised in the West. Near Roselyn.” She turned her cup idly, and I took note of her gloveless hand and missing ring finger. “Curious. I summered near Roselyn twice, and I cannot recall a single Ravenwood.”

As much as I despised being known as a Ravenwood, at least Yves had the sense to give me a name belonging to a coven of reclusive witches and not a notable one.

“Our lands are in the dark forest that borders the Lawless Lands. Where wolves run wild, and enchantments protect us from rogue, lawless witches.” I paused to look at each of them. “It isn’t a place you would see on summer holiday.”

Half the women leaned back in their chairs as if more afraid of me than when I’d sat down, which I liked. Lady Christine, however, seemed less afraid and more annoyed. I wasn’t giving her what she wanted.

“Leave us,” she ordered, with a dismissive wave to the other women.

“But we haven’t finished tea,” complained Lady Argent.

“I said leave us.”

One by one the ladies retreated from the table and fled inside, probably to gossip about whose presence at Château du Mer was more scandalous: mine or Lady Christine’s.

“You are clever,” she started once we were alone, “you are western, and you are hiding something. I could write to my friends and inquire about you, but I won’t. You and I are natural allies, not enemies.”

“And why is that?” I asked, taking another sip of tea.

She tilted her head. “We both are common-born girls who have captivated the attention of vampire princes.”

“His Grace is not captivated by me.”

She gave me a pandering look. “Tell me, do you love him?”

“Love him?” I set my cup down too hard on the saucer. “I’ve known him for days. I’m his son’s nanny. That’s all this is.”

“Chérie.” Her voice went soft. “It is not a sin to love.”

“It is to me.”

The raw truth came tumbling out of my mouth, fast and tight. And after I’d said it, Christine’s teasing fell away.

“When I came to work at The Pearl, all I had were two good dresses and a gold ring to my name,” she admitted. “My husband had a remarkable talent for turning wages into debts, and by the time I came to work at The Pearl, there was rarely enough coin left for supper. At first, I worked in the scullery. Scrubbing dishes. I’d go home with my fingers cracked and bleeding. Then, when a plague rolled through the castle and killed half the staff, I was promoted to chambermaid.” A small smile rounded her lips. “That’s when I caught the Duke’s eye.”

Her rise to power was incredible. Lady Christine was clearly resourceful. But if she’d been married before meeting Rochefort… “What happened to your husband?” I asked, trying to sound like an inquisitive woman and not an investigator.

She rubbed at the gnarled stub of her missing ring finger. A flicker of sadness passed across her pretty face, but it disappeared quickly. “Renaud ensured he’d never be found again”

My eyes widened.

“Twenty years, three sons, and a fourth child stirring—” she smoothed her mutilated hand over the soft swell under her dress, “—and some people still speak of me as though I might be gone by next season.” Her look darkened. “I can endure the sneers. But I won’t have my sons, who were born of royal seed, be treated like paupers.”

Or like the ladies at this table had treated me.

“Now,” Lady Christine said, brightening again as she rose from her seat. She took both my hands in hers. “The Duke of Valemer seems to trust your counsel. I’m sure you’ll help him understand how important this vote is for our shared future.”

She released my hands before sweeping off the terrace, leaving me sitting in the warm summer sun. I snatched an almond cake and took a bite as I stared off into the distance, watching the sea. I did not know whether Rochefort and The Devouring were working together, moving against one another, or if it was all a coincidence.

But I did know one thing for sure: Christine would bury a man to get what she wanted, and Rochefort had no problem grabbing the shovel to give it to her.

Hartley was the only thread I had left to pull.

But in order to find him, I needed to select an old cemetery to cast my charging circle.

Chapter 29