Willa Romeyn

Willa Romeyn is the only first-person narrator in the novel and is one of the protagonists. She is the daughter of Felix and Sylvia, but her aunt Jottie raises her. The novel begins with Willa suspecting that she is being lied to, and she determines to institute the Macedonian virtues of ferocity and devotion. When Layla first arrives, Willa desires becoming the boarder’s confidante, but she soon begins her own research and snooping as she attempts to uncover her family’s secrets.

The summer that she is twelve years old, Willa Romeyn determines to be ferocious and devoted when she begins to suspect she is being lied to. Eager to become the confidante of the Romeyns’ boarder, Layla, Willa spies on Layla during her research, learning about Vause Hamilton who stole money from the mill and died in the mill fire but is oddly connected to...