Jacob and Macon don't have anything in common. He's a thirteen-year-old city boy trying to find his place in the world and she's his little country cousin, the prodigy painter who hardly speaks. When Jacob is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle for the summer and falls ill he's exiled to the attic - the sickroom - and discovers his love of art in the paintings he finds there. Turning his back on his troubles back home, Jacob launches himself into a friendship with the younger cousin he always ignored, a secret friendship. But secrets can be dangerous and when a tantalizing chance to reinvent himself arises Jacob makes a choice that changes both his life and Macon's forever. A powerful novella from the author of Come When I Call You and Home about the betrayals we regret, the friendships we cherish and the summers we never forget.

The cultural and narrative significance of illness, nursing and the sickroom in Victorian literature.