‘But I didn’t send for him,’ she said. ‘Why is he here?’

The servant had no answer to that. ‘The duke is with him, your grace,’ he offered.

She and Eustace now had an unspoken agreement to cross paths as little as possible and, in a house the size of Raven Hall, it was not difficult to avoid one another. Eustace knew nothing of the pop-up book, or the Spider Queen, or the Carousel of Icicles. Rosa had not spoken of the competition to him, either. So far as he was concerned, she was reopening the garden simply because she felt like doing so. They had barely exchanged more than a few words in weeks, and sometimes Rosa almost forgot she had a husband in the house at all.

She sighed and set down her instruments, calling her favourite clockwork raven to her shoulder before she departed. The ravens accompanied her everywhere around the house and she was comforted by the sound of them, even when she couldn’t see them.

When she arrived in the drawing room, she was surprised to see that someone had brought Ada down from the nursery. She was balanced upon Dr Livingstone’s bony knees, her small face scrunched up with worry. Rosa disliked seeing the doctor’s long fingers curled around her daughter, and the way he held her at arm’s length, as if she was something distasteful.

Eustace stood on the other side of the room by the window, an unreadable expression on his face. She could not quite recall when she had last spoken to him, but she was surprised by his appearance. He looked gaunt but, more than that, there was something about the hollowness of his face that was almost haunted. He and the doctor had been talking when she walked in, but fell abruptly silent at her appearance. Rosa felt certain they had been discussing her, and her skin prickled with warning. She felt suddenly ambushed.

‘To what do we owe this pleasure, Doctor?’ she asked, trying to keep her voice level. ‘And why is Ada here? She has not been unwell.’

‘Ma!’ Ada exclaimed, forever eager to use one of the few words she knew.

‘I thought the doctor might as well take a look at her whilst he was here, my dear,’ Eustace said. ‘One cannot be too careful, especially after what happened to poor Esme.’

‘She appears to be in good health,’ Dr Livingstone admitted, sounding almost disappointed by the news.

‘Of course she is.’