" Because Maia now had lunch with the Haltmanns after her music lesson, Miss Minton lunched with the professor in the little café he had shown her. But being friends did not mean blabbing out one’s troubles, and Miss Minton was slow to share with the professor her anxieties about Maia. It was only when he particularly asked about her that she said, “I’m not happy about the way things are going at the Carters. The twins are bullying Maia more openly now and their mother seems to live in a fantasy world. She talks to the portrait of Lady Parsons and sometimes I’m afraid she--”
But Miss Minton stopped there, not liking to admit that her employer was possibly losing her mind. "

― Eva Ibbotson , Journey to the River Sea