"Who are these women here?" Ann points a pudgy finger at the worn drawings.
"The Morrigan was a threefold goddess, often seen as a beautiful maiden, the great mother, and the bloodthirsty crone. She could change shape at will. Quite fascinating, really." Felicity regards Miss Moore coolly. "How did you come to know so much about goddesses and such, Miss Moore?"
Miss Moore leans her face in toward Felicity's till they're separated by only a breath or two. I think Felicity is really going to be raked over the coals for being so cheeky. Miss Moore speaks slowly, deliberately. "I know because I read." She pulls back and stands, hands on hips, offering us a challenge. "May I suggest that you all read? And often. Believe me, it's nice to have something to talk about other than the weather and the Queen's health. Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating. Now, I think we've had enough of mythology. Let's do some sketching, shall we?"
Dutifully, we take out our sketching pads and slender reeds of charcoal. Already Pippa is complaining that the cave is too hot for sketching. The truth is that she can't draw. Not a whit. Everything she attempts ends up looking like a clump of gloomy rocks, and she's not a good sport about it. Ann is tackling her project with her usual perfectionism, making small, careful strokes on the page. My charcoal flies across the pad, and when I'm finished, I've captured the smudgy likeness of the hunt goddess, spear in hand, a deer running ahead of her. It seems bare, so I add a few symbols of my own. Soon, the bottom of the page is filled with the moon-and-eye symbol of my mother's necklace.
"Very interesting, Miss Doyle." Miss Moore peers over my shoulder. "You've drawn the crescent eye."
"There's a name for this?"
"Oh, yes. It's a very famous symbol. A bit like the Freemasons' pyramid."
Ann speaks up. "It's like that strange necklace you wear."
The girls stare at me, suspicious. I could kick Ann and her big mouth. Miss Moore arches an eyebrow. "You have this symbol on a necklace?"
With effort, I pull the amulet out from its hiding place under my high collar. "It was my mother's. It was given to her by a village woman a long time ago."
Miss Moore stoops down to examine it. She rubs a thumb over the hammered metal of the moon. "Yes, that's it, all right."
"What is it, exactly?" I say, tucking it back inside my bodice.
Miss Moore stands, adjusts her hat on her head. "Legend has it that the crescent eye was the symbol of the Order."
"The what?" Cecily says, making a face.