“For a sum,” Miss Corvus said. “There have always been those who would buy little girls for unsavory purposes. Brothel keepers and the like. The woman plainly suspected I was one of them, and sought to make a few coins for herself in the bargain.”

Effie’s stomach revolted at the thought. She pressed a hand to her midsection, willing herself to remain calm and unemotional. But to think—her own mother would have sold her into such circumstances. It was sickening. Devastating. “How much did she ask of you?”

“Four pounds,” Miss Corvus said.

Effie exhaled a trembling breath.

Across the room, Nell angrily brushed a tear from her cheek.

“I paid it, naturally,” Miss Corvus said. “You were half-feral, but you were quick and fearless and undoubtedly bright. I was confident I could make something of you. I flatter myself I succeeded, despite your constant attempts to thwart me.”

“I always believed you’d taken me from someone who loved me,” Effie said.

“I’m well aware what you believed,” Miss Corvus replied. “It was better than you knowing the truth.”

“How could it have been?”

Miss Corvus gave a dismissive sniff, as though the answer were obvious. “You were too young,” she said simply. “The truth would have destroyed you. You were ill-equipped to hear it. It’s the very reason you couldn’t remember the details of the years before you came to me. The experience was too painful for you to recollect. I count it a mercy.”

Effie stared at her former teacher, a powerful emotion holding her in its grip. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to hear that Miss Corvus had acted out of kindness rather than cruelty. Effie had already learned so much of late that cast her former teacher’s actions in a more flattering light. And yet, she was surprised anew, finally comprehending that someone had acted to protect her fragile young heart and mind from additional pain. Not her mother, it was true, but another woman. A stronger woman.

Miss Corvus had been that person, always.

“I daresay you were right,” Effie said. “But it has been a long while since I was a child. You might have told me anytime since I came of age. I’m a grown woman. So is Nell. We deserve your candor if nothing else. There should be no more secrets between us.”

“To what purpose?” Miss Corvus asked. “Your pedigrees don’t define you. Nor do the actions of those who would abuse or victimize you. We forge our own identities here. The two of you have done so, not by my will, but through your own. It’s that which marks your character. Your integrity and achievements, not any accident of birth.”

“Do we forge our identities?” Effie asked. “Or are they manufactured for us?”

Miss Corvus’s lips compressed at the suggestion, but she didn’t deny it. She’d given them their names. Their knowledge. Their singular purpose.