No wonder Laura was the way she was, growing up in a family like this.

But why had Lily copied those words? And why had Agatha—especially when she was facing a serious illness?

I sipped my tea and tried to browse a gardening book, but thinking about gardening just made me think about how little I wanted to get back to gardening with Laura. So I stared at the wall and tried to keep my mind blank.

Then I thought about Barrett. I tried to imagine him at some fancy boarding school, surrounded by friends with names like Chet and Trip and Woodward, or whatever ridiculously rich people named their kids. Whatever lacrosse was, they were all experts, and the beautiful daughters of lesser politicians wore pastel sweaters and tasteful loafers and waited in a line to date them.

The whole idea was pleasantly revolting, and it kept me occupied until I finally fell asleep.

CHAPTER

13

SOMETHING TOUCHED MY shoulder.

I awoke slightly, sure that whatever it was had only been a too-real part of a dream—and then I realized that I hadn’t been dreaming.

Agatha sat on the edge of my mattress, her hand hovering over my shoulder.

I gasped and jerked back in my bed so fast that I almost fell off the other side.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

She jabbed me again. Her eyes, clear in the moonlight, contained not a trace of passion. She might as well have been a bored shopper poking her fingers into a display of throw pillows.

“Okay, stop,” I said, sitting up and rubbing my arm. “I’m awake.”

She took her hand away and turned to face the closet door.

“What do you want?” I asked. “Do you need the bathroom?”

No answer.

“Are you thirsty?”

No answer.

“Bad dream?” I asked.

She walked to the main doorway of the nursery and paused.

“Are you going back to bed?” I asked hopefully.

She stepped aside, holding the door open for me.

It’s amazing what you can project onto someone who’s staring impassively at you. You can project that though they’re silent and still on the outside, on the inside they’re trying desperately to get you to help them with something mysterious and interesting.

“Fine,” I whispered.

I walked past her, and then she went around me to the locked entrance of the green wing.

To my shock, she grabbed the doorknob, pushed against the door with her shoulder, and then bumped it with her hip. It opened easily, and then she led me into the forbidden hall.

I’d already been in the first bedroom on the right, and I had no interest in going back . . . but that was where she stopped. She pulled that door open, too, and stepped away from it, revealing the darkened interior. Almost as if she was making room so I could go in. Alone.