While Louisa had had her fair share of experience with precocious youth, this wasn't exactly the answer that she expected. She was tempted to glance up alarmingly at Mr. Darrow, though the years of practice at coaxing her features into expressions of mild interest kept her from doing anything too theatrical. Perhaps in a more modern day world the thought would have crossed her mind that there might be a 50/50 chance that this child would be the one to finally do her in.


At least she'd said the death of the infant was tragic and not thrilling. That must count for something.

"Having a dictionary and reading companion with you during a hefty book like this is a good strategy for comprehension," she ultimately said, completely deciding to sidestep the more gruesome part of her answer.

This was certainly going to be one of her more interesting jobs.