Miriam’s smile was coy, concealing her delight with a mask of mischief as she met Arthur’s gaze.

“You are far too kind,” she said, holding her hands neatly at the front of her corseted waist. They sparkled with expensive blue jewelry, reflected similarly in the earrings she wore.

Leaning ever so slightly closer, she lowered her voice to tease, “if anything, doctor, you are overdressed.”

“Come now, mother, we do not want the man to starve,” Levi pitched in, his smile yet to fade.

“Yes, of course,” Miriam waved for the manservant, who swiftly moved to walk ahead and lead them to the dining hall.

The pale light of the morning was incomparable to the mood set by the last rays of the evening sun, when it came to the tall windows that lined the dining hall. Candles had been set out, along with the lavish meal the new cooks had prepared.

Above, the light glittered off the glass teardrops of the chandelier, throwing gentle outlines of their shapes across the hall.

Levi took his seat beside Miriam. Mara moved to sit across from him, but paused when she noted Malachi’s presence farther in the room than she’d likely ever seen him. Silently, she offered the seat to him instead, which he took with all the hesitation of a mouse accepting kindness from its trap.

She seated herself beside Levi instead.

“So,” came Levi’s inquisitive tone, after a tense moment in which both he and his mother had startled at the sight of Malachi at the table. His eyes settled on the doctor.

“Arthur. Tell me about yourself, would you? How long have you been a doctor? You enjoy the practice well, I take it?”