There was a pause as Lucie hesitated, like she was deciding how much to say. “I owe Lillian a debt I can never repay,” she said at last. “It doesn’t sit well with me to speak badly of her, but the truth is, she has an iron will, pays no attention to anything she doesn’t want to hear, and she . . .” Lucie trailed off, hesitating again. She sighed. “I suppose I should just come out with it. Ken and I have been here so long that we’re family, and Lillian always said as much, but she still . . . well . . .”

“Oh,” Mika said gently, understanding. “She still treats you and Ken like the help.”

“We are paid to work for her, so she’s not wrong to treat us as such. But we’ve always felt like we have to stay in our place. It’s just how she is. Imperious to a fault. So when it became obvious back then that she had no intention of actually parenting the infants she’d brought home, we didn’t know how to step in.” Lucie’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “But Jamie, well, she couldn’t put him in his place. He was the only one who could take her on in battle and actually win. We’ve all raised those girls, but Jamie’s the one they imprinted on.”

“And he doesn’t want me here,” Mika guessed.

“Give him time. He’ll come around.”

That night, tucked under the warm duvet with Circe stretched out by her feet, Mika was on the cusp of sleep when she became aware of the sound of footsteps crunching in the leaves below her balcony. Curious, she reluctantly left the warmth of her bed, plucked an old, soft, oversized hoodie off the back of a chair, and stepped out into the cold.

“Hello?”

“Jesus,” Jamie’s raspy, startled voice came from somewhere below. “Where the hell are you?”

“Oh, it’s you.” Mika stood on her toes and leaned over the balcony railing. Jamie was in the back garden two stories beneath her, illuminated by a wedge of light from the kitchen. “I’m on the balcony.” She paused. Lucie had said Jamie could be difficult, but maybe this would be a good moment to ease the way a little. “Hang on, I’ll be down in half a second.”

She levered herself over the railing, and then floated herself to the ground. It was all very graceful and elegant, like a superhero descending grandly from the sky—until the very end, when one bare foot landed on a spiky pinecone, and she ruined the grandeur of her entrance with undignified yelps of pain.

Jamie’s hand shot out, catching her by the sleeve before she could topple over. “You okay?” His face was perfectly serious, but there was a suspicious tremor in his voice.

“You can laugh, you know,” Mika said, her yelps already giving way to somewhat hysterical giggles.