Chapter 21: Let Go

She looked for an exception for a night and a day. She looked the only way she knew, which was in order, from the beginning. On the night of the eighteenth she took the full Code of the Bureau home from the Hall, all eleven volumes, in a basket, which was against the rules, and she sat at the desk in her room with the lamp turned up high and started with the volumes that mattered. Of Foxes. Of Households. Of Entries. Of Guests. Every section. Every note under every section. She read as fast as she could, and her eyes went dry, and the lamp burned down and she trimmed it. Nine sat on the floor by the brazier with the volumes she'd finished, and read them too. He asked nothing; he knew what she was looking for. After the first hour he moved closer to the desk. After…