And even if she was, right now I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to lie down somewhere.

With the key scraping in the lock, the door swung open with a squeak, followed by another noise. One I hadn’t expected.

Cheeks burning, I immediately spun around and pulled the door shut as quietly as possible behind me so they didn’t notice me, but the images were already etched in my memory, even as I tried to will them away: a pile of clothes in the middle of the room, roaming hands, Noelle’s hair spilling over her shoulders as she threw her head back, someone else’s blond hair and broad shoulders illuminated by the light of the bedside lamp.

I almost tumbled down the stairs in my haste to bring as much space between myself and my room as fast as possible, not sure where I was going until I slithered through the foyer and the doors of the east wing. It was dimly lit, with rooms on each side, but I barely took any notice of them. The only thing my eyes were fixed on were the huge double doors that were slightly ajar at the end of the corridor, spilling light onto the stone floor. The library.

Mrs. Whitworth had pointed it out to us during our tour on Monday, but we hadn’t entered. Now, as I stepped through the threshold, I couldn’t help but gasp, this time not in horror, but in awe.

The library was so much bigger than I expected. Rows and rows of bookshelves took up every wall, reaching almost to the high ceiling, each of them adorned with intricate wood carvings. Nearby, there were a few desks with old computers and some comfortable-looking red armchairs between the shelves that invited visitors to curl up with a book.

Almost in a trance, I shut the door behind me. As I walked past one of the shelves, tracing a finger along the spines of dozens of books, I felt the most at home I had felt since my arrival here on Sunday. The overwhelming scent of old paper and ink was as soothing as it was grounding, and the little lamps in every shelf drenched the library in an ethereal glow that made it seem just a little bit otherworldly.

The bookshelves standing everywhere made it impossible to see the back, so it was hard to estimate the real size of the room.

To me it seemed like you could spend an eternity in here, surrounded by thousands of stories and characters, so many universes to get hopelessly, wonderfully lost in.

“Evelyn, dear!”

Miss Pepperman’s voice ripped me out of my reverie. Clapping her hands in childlike excitement, she appeared from behind her desk and skipped towards me. “I was wondering all week when you would come by!”

“I would have come sooner if I had known Seven Hills had such a huge library,” I said, my eyes still wide as I took in my surroundings.