Later that night, after the lady’s maids have brushed out our hair and clicked off the lights, I’m startled by the sound of footsteps pacing outside of my bedroom. It’s barely audible, the carpets here are inches thick, but it is unmistakably there. A soft thump, thump, thump. Pause. Thump, thump, thump.

“Hello?” I hiss into the darkness of the room.

Ordinarily, I’d use a simple light casting spell to dispel the long shadows stretching over the room, but I am terrified that the magic won’t come, so I lean over to the bedside table and click the button on the wall to set the sconces alight.

There is no one in my room. The baby-blue damask wallpaper is no longer cast in threatening shadows. But the thumping footsteps have not stopped.

It could be any of the number of household staff. It could be a ghost, or my imagination.

Or, an awful part of me considers, it could be Finn. He did so love to come to me in the night.

“Hello?” I whisper once more.

The door swings open with a crash, sending me yelping and scrambling across my duvet. I throw a stupid little tasseled throw pillow at the door more out of pure shock than an attempt at a counterattack.

“Ow!” Lena yells as it hits her in the arm. She picks it up off the floor and hurls it back at me. It bounces directly off my head.

“I did not deserve that! I’m the one who is currently the victim of a home intrusion.”

“This is my home,” Maxine quips from where she stands behind Lena.

They’re both in their nightclothes. Lena’s hair is plaited in two long braids, and she wears a chemise just like mine. Maxine is wearing her monogrammed set of men’s pajamas, her hair up in a bun.

Unceremoniously, the two of them throw themselves onto my bed, nestling in on either side of me.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“We just want to make sure you’re all right,” Maxine says. She puts her chin directly onto my shoulder and looks up at me with her big, gray eyes. “And Lena’s light was on and it was driving me bonkers.”

“I was awake painting.”

Maxine nods. “I could hear her charcoal scratching through the wall.”

“Can I see the pieces you’ve been so hard at work on?” I ask.

Lena shakes her head no. “Not until they’re finished.”

I lean back against the pillows. “Thank you,” I say. “For so many things.”

Maxine hums. “You’re welcome.”

Lena bumps her freezing feet against mine under the duvet. “Stuck with us, you see. No more secrets.”

“No more secrets,” I agree.

I savor the weight and warmth of them next to me. Twin anchors in the darkness.