Chapter 16
Despite my unhappiness at being cooped up in Castle Raine every afternoon, there were some bright spots. Miss Groves pointed me toward several interesting books in the library, and I finally had a chance to explore the halls and winding staircases of the castle to my satisfaction.
I didn’t discover anything of great interest in the rooms, but at least I no longer became lost in the dim passageways. There was one parlor filled with dusty musical instruments—including a stringless harp—that I intended to visit again, and a study that held a strange collection of stuffed animal heads on the walls. Their dead glass eyes seemed to watch me, and I left after a brief inspection.
Warned that Neeve’s birthday was coming, I made her a painstaking watercolor of a bouquet of lavender. Mi
