Blaise stepped into a candlelit room filled with people and furniture. “Where are we?” he asked Livia. “How can a whole other room be here? There were only two rooms on the top floor.” “No, this room is also on the top floor of Jeremiah Starling’s house.” Livia’s face was half in shadow, but her smile gleamed. “It is a special room.” Blaise looked puzzled. “So are we somehow between the Cabinet of Curiosities and the servants’ bedroom?” “In a way,” she answered. “The door leads to another part of the house. It is the only way to enter it.” Blaise peered at their surroundings. The worktables, timber floors, and windows were similar to the ones in the Cabinet of Curiosities, and there was an open door in the opposite corner. But this room was a jumble of furniture, objects, and artwork, crowded with six teenage boys working on tables and at easels. They wore loose shirts and breeches, their lank hair tied back. Daylight filtered in through the rippled glass of two windows and a crude skylight, but even so, there was an array of lanterns on every ledge and surface.
