I felt a small, hard square tucked deep inside the rabbit’s torn shoulder seam, where I had hidden a spare brass house key two months earlier, after Lucy asked for a secret place to hide her treasures.

“Why did you go into the closet, sweetie?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.

“Grandmother put me in there,” Lucy whispered into my collar.

“I asked for a piece of dinner bread because my tummy hurt, and she said girls who interrupt don’t get food.”

“She was misbehaving,” Caroline said from three feet away, her voice sharp and loud in the cramped hallway.

“She reached for a dessert fork on the sideboard after I specifically told her to leave the silver alone.”