Lin Tan, Bessie and Audrey go to see Miss Allen; they don’t mention the magical books, as they think Miss Marsden might want them, but do tell her about the magical circle in Aubrey’s town house. Miss Allen agrees to look into the disposition of the films; without an obvious heir, they will probably be sold at auction, but she’ll do some digging. She’s less hopeful about finding out anything about débutantes.

The group gets together and considers the London Season, now mostly over. The Viscount Cardwell has a house near Ellerbeck, a tiny village near Lancaster; it’s a relatively recent creation and there’s no great amount of land.

Lin Tan goes home to ask her mother about what’s been happening with the Season; although quite a few ladies were unable to attend the last few balls, there are no special entertainments being added, and to attend the few events still happening now would hint at desperation. Those débutantes still in London at all will mostly be socialising in less formal settings.

The group prepares a plan: Lin Tan and Bessie will be in the West End that evening while Gertrude and Milly visit Felicity, and they’ll go to specific telephone boxes and call each other at particular times.

In the West End, all three of the ghostly figures are visible in large numbers; they’re not clumping together but there are still an awful lot of them. Bessie tries to ignite a Maria, but doesn’t get anywhere; it dives into a wall, then comes out to strike at Bessie, though without success. Lin Tan tries to get suddenly and acrobatically close to a knife-man, without success, but does manage to sneak up on one in an alley. A golem silently follows her, and Bessie follows it. Lin Tan manages to ignite the knifeman, but feels a freezing pain in her guts as the golem pushes its hand through her from behind; she spins round and tries to grab its amulet, but it manages to evade her, though after a couple of tries Bessie manages to ignite it.

Meanwhile Gertrude and Milly are in Camden, meeting Felicity’s neighbour (who is clearly assuming they’re confidence tricksters of some sort). Felicity drops off in mid-sentence around nine o’clock (sunset is at 9.22), and the pair can see many thin strands of shine reaching out from her in a generally southerly direction, spreading over quite a wide arc; there’s one rather thicker strand leading off somewhere between the east and the south-east. Milly puts out tea-cups to mark the various bearings. Felicity’s sleep is obviously disturbed, but Gertrude is unable to wake her with shaking, smelling-salts, or putting her hand in a bowl of cold water, and is reluctant to go further. Putting a match to the big strand has no effect, though Gertrude finds she can (with an effort of will) pick up and twist the small ones; it’s even possible with some work to cut them, though they re-seal behind the blade rather than snapping apart.

Gertrude goes out to check in with the other group, and they exchange information. While Lin Tan is talking, a chilling hand reaches through the back of the phone box; she evades, but grabs it, freezing her hands, but holding it in place long enough for Bessie to ignite it.

Milly immediately sees the small strands catching fire and burning away: the fire doesn’t spread from one to the next, but seems to jump about randomly.

Bessie takes Lin Tan to a coffee house to warm up, and Gertrude joins them and treats Lin Tan’s severe case of freezer-burn (she’s still a bit wobbly on her feet, but functional); Milly stays with Felicity until the strands fade, at about five minutes to ten, and she wakes up. (Nothing like all of the strands had burned away.) Felicity gives the addresses of Kidlington and Talbot. Bessie considers whether her fire-eating tricks might be helpful, as these enemies become more suspicious.