The third of the Rose books. In which they leave England and travel by boat and train to Venice -- through Talish. The alternicity of this series is a little --weird. Spoilers ahead for the first two.
It opens with the servants being reconciled to the notion of Rose's magic -- because they can get her to tell them about the princesses after the events of the last novel. (Which are info-dumped with a bit of clumsiness, but at least quickly.) But then she and Freddie (and Gus) are bustled off to the palace, because the magician's mask, an immensely valuable if not well-understand magical mask, made in Venice and owned, at one time, by Dr. Dee.
Christmas comes. Rose gets a doll house from Princess Jane, and a doll from Bella. And then some accidental magic makes the doll a poppet -- between a miscast spell and a drop of blood -- who, indeed, reveals some crucial information, albeit cryptically
Which leads to the trip across Europe. And the rest of the tale encompasses a duke who is taken with a cat, a table with lobster, Miss Fell who notices something about Rose and tells her she should learn to embroider both as a young lady and as a magician, a sailor who calls Rose "Miss" which brings home how she can't be taken for a servant on this trip, a servant boy in a chest, a dance with a boy whose eyes don't match, Rose getting the perfect mask, which she can't wear, and much more.
