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softness of the ribbons, cloths, and cushions in the duchess’s dressing room, and the muted pink and cream colors reminded Jessica of something she believed she half-remembered, something warm and feminine. When Anne wasn’t looking, Jessica would crawl up to the back of the ivory-striped silk divan and open the locket with her mother’s miniature and stare at it. With the duchess simply lying there and not speaking, Jessica could almost believe it was her real mother in the room with her.

    8:30 A.M. Breakfast

    “A lady should not eat too much,” the duchess instructed, “nor should she let the flesh fall from her bones.”
    Jessica was given porridge and cream, hot black tea, and a piece of fruit, often an apple.
    “An incomparable aid to digestion,” the duchess said.

    9:30 A.M. Traditional Lessons: French, Latin, and Sums

    A tutor was eventually found, which was a great annoyance to Jessica. Terrence
was
a young and good-natured man, however—if not as handsome or nice as Alan. She became excellent at sums and her times tables. When she wanted to do more, Terrence justlaughed and said it wasn’t necessary because she would never become a shopkeeper or a banker. Girls didn’t do such things, especially one of her station.
    When Jessica told this story offhandedly to the duchess, the older woman’s face froze in a steely blankness Jessica hadn’t expected. When Terrence was dismissed and a new teacher found, Jessica thought it was something
she
had done. This one was far less friendly, an older woman with glasses that pinched and an Adam’s apple that stuck out so far it looked like she had permanently swallowed a cannonball.

    2:00 P.M. Lessons of a Different Sort: Lying, Hiding, and Sneaking About

    After her studies, Jessica had the afternoons all to herself. The duchess disappeared to her bedroom, to nap, read improvement books, or perform strange experiments, depending on who was asked. Jessica spent every scrap of these precious moments in the kitchen with her old family, or outside with her old friends or Alan, her best friend of all.
    The duchess would have been appalled if she knew. But Jessica was perfect in her little frocks at dinner. Lying came as naturally to her as running. She never told the duchess she was catching frogs with Davey; she was always “picking wildflowers” or “getting some air.” She was never running races with the servants children; she was “playing with her hoop” or “enjoying the company of someone else’ssmall dog.” The duchess had taught her a key point in the importance of dress; Jessica very carefully kept her outdoor playclothes separate from her indoor, parent-approved ones.

    4:00 P.M. Tea

    Sometimes with stuffed animals and stories, sometimes with Dolly and extra sweets, sometimes with the duchess and instructions:
    “A lady takes one lump, never two.”
    “Always offer to pour.”
    “Raise your finger—thus—while you sip.”
    “This is the correct fork for pie.”
    Jessica would nod sweetly, face scrubbed and tea frock on, and she scratched the scabs on her knees when she could.

    6:00 P.M. Illicit Wanders, Dangerous Discoveries

    The duchess was accustomed to spending this hour going over meals and groceries with the housekeeper and the cook. Jessica thought this a splendid time to go through the older woman’s things in her other room—the one Jessica wasn’t allowed to enter. Alan did not like this game at all, playing rarely, reluctantly, and only, he said, to keep her out of trouble. Jessica had been dying to see the secret laboratory everyone whispered about. The rumors of the duchess’s being a witch doubled her curiosity.
    The laboratory
did
satisfy any child’s concept of a dangerous, mystical place. Where another woman might have had small paintings or statues, the duchess had strange machines with gears, knobs, and dials. Where other people might have stacks of favorite books or small bouquets of flowers, the duchess had racks