Behind the closed door, Evangeline accuses Cordelia of flirting with Master Strauss. Cordelia panics and confesses she had only been trying not to stare at his pimple, which sends her mother into rare laughter. Evangeline embraces her daughter, crooning about how the Squire only needs a small push, after which Cordelia will be married off to a rich husband. She instructs Cordelia to charm the wealthy Lord Evermore for practice, and to keep Hester distracted. Cordelia inwardly seethes, despising the part of herself that still craves her mother's love.

Climbing toward Hester's solar, Cordelia agonizes over whether to warn Hester about Evangeline. She fears sounding mad, since people seem to believe sorcery is limited to petty illusions. She resolves at least to ask about magic, then pauses in the hall to release a tiny stress sound before entering.

In the solar, she finds Hester with Lady Strauss (Imogene), and soon Penelope Green arrives. Penelope is described as oddly compelling, scarred and not tall, yet commanding the room. The women tease and catch up while Cordelia embroiders, learning a cranefly knot from Hester.

Cordelia seizes a gossip-driven opening to ask whether people really keep sorcerers. The women laugh it off: sorcerers, they insist, do little more than illusions, cheating cards, or disguising livestock. Lady Strauss recounts a sorcerer caught cheating who was stabbed through the hand by a man wearing a ward. They explain that water, wine, salt, and holy ground break spells, and discuss what makes ground holy, with Imogene musing that belief itself may consecrate a place.

Cordelia listens, dismayed that no one seems to believe in the kind of mind-controlling sorcery her mother practices, but intrigued by the talk of wards and holy ground. For a brief moment, lost in the conversation and her embroidery, she nearly forgets Evangeline is in the house.