The next morning, she brought out the tape to measure. Emma watched from the bed as her mother stretched the metal strip from corner to corner, muttering numbers under her breath. Lucy measured the bedroom, then the narrow hallway behind it, then the small guest room on the other side, writing figures onto the back of an envelope.
When she laid the rough sketch over the photocopied floor plan the estate agent had given her, the discrepancy was small but undeniable. The guest room was shallower than it should have been by several hand spans. Enough to notice once you were looking for it. Enough to hide something between two ordinary rooms.