But at Cartsburn House, within the Crawfurd family, there were two girls close to Maggie’s age. She had met them when she’d gone the first time to help Mrs. Reid do fittings for them, and she’d found them very friendly.

Mrs. Reid had said to Lily later, “If you would imagine fitting sparrows in a field, all hopping round and chirping at the same time, that’s what it was like.”

But she took Maggie with her the next time she went to Cartsburn, and the next time after that, and Maggie and the Crawfurd girls grew still more comfortable with one another.

One day, on arriving, there was music playing in the house, and Maggie had been mesmerized. Peering round the open doorway to the grand front parlor, she saw one of the girls sitting next to her mother in front of a long, box-shaped instrument set upon legs, with a raised lid on which there was painted a landscape with fields and white clouds.

Lady Cartsburn’s hands were on the white-and-black keys of the instrument, making the music, and something within Maggie rose in response like a bird seeking somehow to soar in those painted clouds.

Holding her breath, she stood, transfixed and listening.

Afterward, she asked the Crawfurd girls what they called the incredible instrument, and she learned it was the virginals, and that it had come from Italy, and that they hated to play it, but their mother wished them to be proper ladies and so they were bound to take lessons. They showed Maggie how the keys plucked at small strings, and allowed her to touch one, to make a note sound.

“Maggie.” Mrs. Reid, standing behind in the doorway, was watching them closely. “It’s time to go.”

So Maggie played one last note on the wonderful virginals and thanked the Crawfurd girls and, with reluctance, trailed Mrs. Reid home.

Some days after that, Lily asked Mrs. Reid, “Did you wish me to enter the week’s accounts for your work up at the Mansion House?”

Mrs. Reid shrugged and replied, “There is no payment to add this week, nor will there be one for some weeks to come. Lady Cartsburn and I have agreed upon new terms.”

And so Maggie started to have music lessons each week at the Mansion House.

Lily would take her, because Mrs. Reid said she thought Lily might like to walk in the gardens awhile and enjoy the peace while she was waiting for Maggie. It would make a change from the hours she spent cooking and keeping house. For some reason, that had made Lily cry quietly, but she had hidden her tears and thanked Mrs. Reid, and every Wednesday, while Maggie was spending her happy hour with Lady Cartsburn and learning to play on the virginals, Lily was walking in all weathers out in the Mansion House gardens, along the burn and through the towering trees of the deep woods behind.

Lady Cartsburn walked Maggie out one afternoon at the end of the lesson and met Lily underneath the lime trees by the gate.