The night air was cool, and while there was a slight breeze, its chill was lost on Addison as she reached the bottom step. Gone was the sound of hollow slate beneath her feet and the roughness of iron railing under her hand. Her footing was now solid, and the stone atop the banister was polished and elegant, conflicting with memories embedded from her childhood. Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the bottom step.

Addison’s mind filled with the recollections of taunts and screams, and of insults and forced solitude, robbing her of a childhood and of love, but the inner sting of those memories was starting to fade. Like the familiar sounds and textures replaced by new, the future was slowly burying the past.

Joanna sat down next to Addison. “Are you all right?” she said, noticing the grim look on Addison’s face.

Addison drew in another long breath, letting it out slowly as she peered through the darkness at the jumble of overgrowth on the other side of the footpath. Picking up a dried stalk of grass at her feet, she twirled it in her fingers. “Have you found the fountains yet?”

“No, but I can see—” Joanna jerked back her head. “Wait,” she said, eyeballing Addison. “Fountains? As in more than one?”

“There are three actually.”

“Three? How do you know that?”

Addison looked at Joanna and smiled. “Because before I was shipped off to boarding school, it’s where I played when I was a child,” she said, tossing the stalk of grass to the ground. “Evelyn couldn’t watch me twenty-four-seven, and the rest of the staff couldn’t have cared less, so whenever I could steal away, I’d come out here and play adventurer.” Addison stopped, grinning as she remembered the few good memories she had. “I’d pretend I was an orphan lost in a jungle. I’d spend hours out there, making my way through the brush, memorizing everything as I went.”

“Why memorize? Afraid to get lost?”

“No, I was never afraid out there,” Addison said, gesturing toward the gardens. “My fears were inside the house, which is why I could never make a map. If it were ever found, my playground would have gone away, so I paced off steps and memorized the landmarks.”

“Like the fountains.”

“Yes. That’s how I know there are three. There're also a few reflecting pools, one of which has a footbridge over it and…oh…um…statues…there are four statues of angels.” Addison paused, frowning for a second as she looked across the footpath again before her lips curved upward. “And down the hill between the orchards is a greenhouse, or rather was. It was in sad shape back then, so I doubt it’s still standing.”

Suddenly feeling as if she was talking to herself, Addison turned her head and found Joanna staring back at her with eyes bulging. “What?”

“Orchards?”

“That’s right.”