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When we first meet Dee she's talking to Nick Law, the new college master. Law's lately of the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully and Dee can sense something of that in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the master. She's pregnant and looking for help, not with the new baby bit but with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, but to no one else. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school.
The process was slow but Dee does build up a relationship with Felicity and gradually she begins to talk to Dee. Nick and Mariah Law are both high achievers, but they have little time for Felicity and time and understanding are what she needs. Dee gives her both, but it's at the expense of her relationship with the master, who would sack Dee without a moment's thought was it not for the pleadings of his wife.
