*Maddy*

I wake with a start to my bedroom door opening. After a week spent living in this castle full time, I’m still not used to the maids fluttering in and out and around the castle day in and day out. They move like ghosts most of the time, save for Hannah, who always stops to talk if she has a moment to spare.

I roll over and find that the young maid who tends to my room in the early morning–stoking the fire and laying out fresh clothes or dropping off baskets of ...