At first, it was jarring to watch Isaac and Arabella interact with the household staff. Lavinia quickly realized that what she had taken for guards were nearly interchangeable with the rest of the faculty. Their uniforms, crisp and ironed, matched the ones worn by the kitchen and cleaning staff and were mirrored in the dresses worn by maids. All of them had the same spreading black veins. Arabella caught Lavinia staring and shook her head.

“I’ll explain later,” she ...