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always find his way back.’
    To Grace, who was expected to wash her hands before touching any food, it seemed a dirty way of learning a lesson, but she held Pepper still, gently stroking the black and white stripes of his stomach, whilst Nanny applied the butter.
    â€˜Now you stay here with him. I’ve other things to see to. Keep the door closed. He’s not to be let out for at least an hour. After that, we’ll give him another dab of butter and let him down the stairs to find his way in and out. All right?’
    Grace nodded, pleased to be given the responsibility. She watched as Pepper explored, sniffing curiously at all the smells of new wood and paint and linoleum, and chasing with enthusiasm a ball which his mistress made for him out of crumpled paper. Then, as Nanny had promised, he sat down on the floor with one leg pointing upwards, and began to lick and clean himself.
    Later that day, after a meal which was a kind of picnic, brought up from her old home in a wicker basket, Grace was put back to bed for an afternoon rest, because she had been so ill the day before. But after tea she was allowed to explore the whole of the new house. Leaving Pepper asleep in a basket lined with pieces of old blanket, she held Nanny Crocker’s hand as they walked along wide corridors and opened heavy doors, making guesses about what they would find inside.
    Each of the rooms intended for the boys had a name painted on the outside, so that there should be no disputes. Beneath that row of bedrooms were three long, bright rooms which Nanny knew were to be the schoolroom, the day nursery and the children’s dining room. Grace thought of the battered furniture and scuffed walls in their old house and wondered how long the new rooms would continue to look so clean.
    Round a corner they came to two large rooms flooded with the late afternoon sun. One was already furnished as a dining room. The other, Nanny told her, was waiting for the drawing room furniture to arrive from their old house. Already there were long curtains hanging at the windows and a new carpet on the floor, giving a feeling of warmth and homeliness.
    But in the third side of the house was a room which was bare. It was twice as tall as any other, and the only windows were high up along one wall, so that no one could possibly see out of them. Grace, overawed by the size and height of the room, tried to imagine what could possibly go inside it. Ordinary furniture would look quite wrong. There would have to be something very tall – something which had a winding feeling to it, like a creeper twining round a tree. She could almost see the shape in her mind.
    â€˜It’s a studio,’ said Nanny Crocker. ‘Your mama willcome here to paint her pictures. Now then, can you show me the way back to your tower room?’
    Grace tried and failed, ending up on the staircase which led from the kitchen to the servants’ quarters. The house was too big for her to remember all its turnings. It was a worry, for Nanny might not always be there to help. Later that evening, after she had been tucked up and had pretended to be asleep, Grace cautiously opened her eyes to check by the flame of the night candle that she and Pepper were alone. She slid out of bed and dabbed butter on Pepper’s paws once more, to make certain that he would never run away. Then, biting her lower lip with concentration, she smeared the rest of the butter on the soles of her own feet and began to walk round the room, her fingers outstretched to run along the surface of the wall.
    Round and round the green linoleum she went, marking out a magic circle. Pepper padded silently behind her, occasionally darting forward to tap at her heels with a soft paw. Licking the bottoms of her feet proved difficult, but she managed to suck her big toes; perhaps that would be enough. By the time she climbed back into her new big bed she was shivering with satisfaction as well as with cold. Now