“Yes, I imagine it will be, if I do my job properly,” I said. It was already my favorite room. My fingers itched to run along all those spines and see what wonders I might discover.

I reluctantly let Olive lead me out of the library to tour the rest of the mansion. We saw the dining room being set for dinner, the drawing room used for formal occasions, and many more rooms whose purpose I couldn’t keep straight in my head. All of them were splendidly furnished and filled with artwork worthy of a museum. I could hardly believe that I would be living in a place like this. And to think I’d started the day terrified of what my future might hold.

Along the way, we passed a closed door. “That’s Uncle’s study,” Olive informed me. “We’re not allowed in there. The maids can’t even go in there. Not that they want to. They don’t like all those bugs. There’s even a giant hairy spider.” She said it with enough relish that I doubted she shared the maids’ fears. “He has many valuable specimens, and some of them are so fragile that opening the door the wrong way disturbs them.” She recited this as though it had been repeated to her many times. I wondered how many dragonfly wings had crumbled to dust because of Olive bursting in on her uncle.

When we returned to my room, Mrs. Talbot was there instructing a pair of footmen where to place my trunk. “Run along, Olive,” she said when she saw us. “Give Miss Newton a chance to rest.”

“Thank you for the tour, Olive,” I said. She waved goodbye as she ran to her room.

“Would you like one of the maids to help you unpack?” Mrs. Talbot asked.

“No, thank you. I don’t have much.”

She dismissed the footmen, then said, “If you don’t mind, I thought I should go over what you can expect tomorrow.”

“Of course.” I gestured her toward the chair and sat across from her on the edge of the bed.

“In the morning, you’ll escort Rollo to school, leaving in time to arrive at nine. Olive usually goes along for the walk. You’ll have lessons with Olive until lunchtime, after which the music teacher and drawing master arrive. The drawing master works with one girl while the music teacher works with the other, and then they switch. You’ll be free during those lessons until it’s time for you to meet Rollo at school.”

“Surely Rollo is old enough to walk to and from school on his own,” I said.

From her reaction, I might have thought I’d suggested that he run off to sea as a cabin boy on a pirate ship. “Oh no, that would not do at all. The children must be chaperoned at all times in public.”