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Lavinia has never been able to train her staff properly.
    Imperia nods, then heads to the back staircase. She creeps up the side, like she used to do when she was really little and up too late. She reaches the top. Most of the doors are closed, including Grandmama’s bedroom door.
    Imperia knocks, then pushes the door open. She says, “It’s me, Grandmama,” just in case Grandmama thinks it’s one of the servants.
    “Imperia?” Grandmama sound surprised. “Just one moment.”
    There’s a flutter and a hint of perfume as Imperia steps inside. The bed curtains are stirring. With one bejeweled hand, Grandmama pushes the curtains back.
    Imperia frowns. She would swear, with the curtains moving like that, that Grandmama has just gotten out of bed. But Grandmama is still in bed, and the bed is messier than usual. Grandmama has grabbed her black silk dressing gown and tugs it on as she sits up. She’s tiny and blond, with slightly upturned eyes and an upturned nose. She almost looks younger than Mom.
    There’s rumors that Grandmama has mixed blood—part small fairy, part human. And while Imperia hasn’t cared about that, her other grandparents do. They think Grandmama Lavinia is a bad influence because of it.
    “What are you doing here, child?” Grandmama asks, smoothing her blond hair back with one hand. “Is there trouble?”
    Imperia’s eyes get wet but she blinks hard, bites her lower lip, and nods.
    “Oh, my.” Grandmama swings her thin legs over the bed and slips her feet into a pair of black feathery mules that she got in the Greater World recently, when she helped Daddy find the right house for the girls. “Did something else happen with your mother?”
    “No.” Imperia’s voice is small.
    “Is your father here?”
    “No,” Imperia says.
    “Grace?”
    “No,” Imperia says.
    Grandmama puts her hands on her hips. Her black silk dressing gown only comes to mid-thigh, and swings outward like a party dress. Her lips thin. “So your grandparents are here.”
    “No,” Imperia says.
    Grandmama straightens in surprise. Even with the heels on her mules, she’s barely as tall as Imperia now. “You’re here on your own?”
    Imperia nods.
    “From the Greater World?”
    Imperia nods again. There’s a lump in her throat. She missed Grandmama Lavinia more than she can say.
    “What went wrong? Did something happen to your father and Grace?” She sounds panicked now.
    “No,” Imperia says. “They’re fine. But Daddy’s really mad at me, and I need your help.”
    Grandmama’s eyes narrow. “You came here because your father is mad at you?”
    Imperia nods. “He wants me to figure out how to fix something I did. And I don’t know how.”
    “He wants you to figure this out on your own?” Grandmama asks.
    “Yes,” Imperia says.
    “And you thought you could ask me to fix it?”
    “ No, ” Imperia says. “I thought you could help me fix it.”
    “Yeah,” Grandmama says softly to herself. “That’s figuring it out on your own.”
    She glances over her thin shoulder at the dressing screen near the back of the room. Then she comes to Imperia, puts her arms around her, and hugs her.
    “Give me a minute, child,” she says, “and I’ll meet you for breakfast in the sun room.”
    Imperia glances at the screen too, but she doesn’t know why. Then she nods, sighs, and heads out of the room. She hears voices behind her, and hopes that she’s hearing servants.
    She heads down the front steps to the sun room, which is really the let’s-hope-there’s-sun room. The sun doesn’t come out a lot here, and when it does, it doesn’t always reach this room.
    Still the room is nice, and Grandmama Lavinia uses it as her dining area. There’s a sideboard on the interior wall. The other walls are all glass, and Grandmama has flowering plants all around. An oak table dominates the middle of the room, and is already set up, with jams and cakes and plates in the middle.
    Usually one of the servants