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"I dreamed about her last night," I blurt out.

"Did you? What did you dream?" Simon asks. I dreamed of Circe and Nell's stifled cry. What if that was no dream?

"I--I don't remember," I say.

"Oh, poor dear, you're pale," Lady Denby says."It is very hard to hear that one has been duped by a supposed friend. And now your Miss Hawkins is ill. It must be a terrible shock."

"Yes, thank you," I say."I'm not feeling well."

"Poor dear," Lady Denby murmurs again. "Simon, do be a gentleman and help Miss Doyle."

Simon takes my arm and escorts me from the room.

"I can't bear to think of Ann in such trouble," I say.

"If she misrepresented herself, she deserves what comes," Simon says."No one likes to be deceived."

As I am deceiving Simon, letting him think me this uncomplicated English schoolgirl? Would he run if he knew the truth? Would he feel I had misled him? Keeping secrets is as much an illusion as acting out an elaborate charade.

"I know this is a horrible imposition, Mr. Middleton," I say. "But could you possibly delay your mother's visit to Mrs. Worthington until I've had a chance to speak with Miss Bradshaw?"

Simon gives me a smile. "I'll do my best. But you should know that once my mother sets her sights on something, there is little you can do to change the course of it. I think she's set her sights on you."

I should be flattered. And I am, in a small way. But I cannot shake the feeling that in order to be loved by Simon and his family, I shall have to be a very different sort of girl and that if they knew me--truly knew me--they would not welcome me so warmly.

"What if you were to be disappointed in me?"

"I could never be disappointed in you."

"But what if you discovered something . . . surprising about me?"

Simon nods."I know what it is, Miss Doyle." "You do?" I whisper.

"Yes," he says in earnest. "You have a hump on your back that only appears after midnight. I shall take your secret to the grave."

" Yes, that is it," I say, smiling, blinking hard at the tears that sting my eyes.

"You see? I know everything about you," Simon says. "Now get some rest. I shall see you tomorrow."

I hear them in the parlor gossiping. I hear them because I am on the stair, soft as starlight. And then I am out the door, quiet as can be, and off to the Worthingtons' house to warn them. And after, I shall find Miss McCleethy, and she will answer for Miss Moore, my mother, Nell Hawkins, and the others. For this purpose, I tuck the blade Kartik left me into my boot.

Felicity's butler opens the door and I push my way inside, past his protests.

"Felicity!" I call out, not caring about manners or protocol."Ann!"

"In here!" Felicity answers from the library.

I barrel my way in with the butler on my heels."Miss Doyle to see you, miss." he says, determined to return some sense of decorum to the proceedings.

"Thank you, Shames. That will be all," Felicity says. "What is it?" she asks, when we are alone."Is it something about Miss Moore? Have you found a way to get her back?"

I shake my head. "We're found out. Lady Denby has made inquiries. She's found your cousin, Ann. She knows we've been masquerading all this time." I sink into a chair. I am so very tired.

"Then everyone will know. You may be sure of that," Felicity says, looking truly terrified.

Ann pales."I thought you said no one would be the wiser!"

"I hadn't counted on Lady Denby and her hatred of my mother."

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