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Dedication

To the heroine who saved me

CHAPTER ONE

Lenora Arrives

Lenora was wretchedly unhappy.

She was wretchedly unhappy despite the fact that she was lounging in the back of a giant limousine, so wretchedly unhappy that she had thrown herself across an entire leather seat and was kicking away at one of the doors. She was wretchedly unhappy despite having incredibly rich parents and an inattentive nanny, despite everything. They’d stuck her with this nanny while they were gone. Normally an inattentive nanny would be wonderful, but this nanny insisted on dragging Lenora all over the city in her parents’ limo so the nanny could see her friends and shop and do every boring thing an adult could possibly want to do. Lenora had to go along for all of it, and she was BORED. BORED. BORED.

She’d tried everything to make it an interesting summer. “Look!” she’d said to her mother, who was selecting her most glamorous dresses for the trip Lenora wasn’t going on. “The planetarium is hiring an assistant. I could apply!”

“Nonsense, Lenora!” her mother had said.

“But why not? I love the stars.” And she did, even though she could hardly see them, living in the big, bright city her entire life. “How about this? The art museum is hiring a tour guide!”

“Ridiculous!”

“And the zoo’s big cat habitat is hiring someone to feed the tigers…”

“Preposterous!”

“But WHY?” asked Lenora, sure that she could do any of these things if given the chance.

“Because none of those places is going to hire an eleven-year-old,” stated her father, who was in the other closet trying to decide which of his five hundred ties to bring. “Now, stop being silly and do try to get along with the nanny. She comes from a very good family.”

And so Lenora found herself lying flat on her back across the incredibly comfortable limousine seat and staring up through the window at passing skyscrapers. She thought about how bored she was and kicked at the door of the limo again.

“Stop that,” said the nanny as she tapped away at her phone. She was sitting several feet away on her own seat.